Category: Europe
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The world’s largest ancient castle is in the capital city, Prague, equal in size to about 7 football fields. Prague is known as the “City of a Hundred Spires” due to its breathtaking Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque architecture. The country has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world; maybe they can blame that…
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Legend has it that Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, was born in Cyprus. She is said to have emerged from a rock at Aphrodite’s beach. Today, people watch the ocean waves crash over this rock as they form pillars of foam said to resemble the goddess of love. It is also called the playground…
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This is a country full of amazing architecture representing several periods, such as Renaissance, Gothic, Baroque, and Roman. It has one of the 6 largest Roman amphitheatres in existence today and it is still used for many events, seating 23,000 spectators. There’s a breath-taking coastline on the Adriatic Sea. It’s also known for the stunning…
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This nation, full of ancient history, is home to the oldest European city, founded in 6000 BCE. Its culture includes folk songs often accompanied by bagpipes. This is such a significant cultural heritage that one such song was included in the infamous Voyager Golden Record, which journeyed into space onboard the Voyager spacecraft in 1977.…
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Ukraine is known as the “Breadbasket of Europe” because of its extremely fertile soil, a black soil, called Chernozem. It has the deepest metro station in the world at 105.5 meters (346 feet). The largest airplane ever built was built here. It is a country responsible for many inventions and first successes such as hard…
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In 1984 it hosted, in the city of Sarajevo, the Olympics making it the first ever Winter Olympic Games held in a socialist state and a Slavic language-speaking country. It was also the first Olympics to take place in the Balkans. The Sarajevo Sahat Tower is a historic timepiece which is said to be the…
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Belgium is referred to as “the Battlefield of Europe” because many battles between many European powers and during the two World Wars took place here. Maybe due the pains of war, it recognized the need for diplomacy. Now, the capital city, Brussels, is considered a center of the world economy and diplomacy, with headquarters of…
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This is the last country in Europe which still uses the death penalty and the last country in Europe run by a dictator. It is also the only country of the former USSR that has restored the Soviet flag (with minor changes). This is a country where every second child, instead of wanting to be…
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Azerbaijan is a country which is naturally on fire. It has natural gas reserves which supply the fuel for a 10-meter-long wall of fire that has been burning continuously since 1950. Find out which famous explorer first spotted these mysterious flames in the 13th century. Not only is this mountain of fire, but there is a…
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How did Vienna’s coffee house culture make it onto the UNESCO’s list of sites under the category “Intangible Cultural Heritage?” The Broadway musical The Sound of Music was based on the true story of the von Trapp family. How much of their history was portrayed in this musical? The oldest still-operating restaurant in the world is found…