UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Europe

Echmiadzin is for the Armenian Apostolic Church what the Vatican is for the Catholic Church. The first Armenian church was built here in 301 and it has since become the most holy place in Armenia. The church was later rebuilt and extended to the cathedral you can see today, and the complex now includes chapels, priest seminar, home for the Catholicos (leader of the Armenian Church) and the treasury. Here, they keep all the religious relics that have been found in Armenia, including the spear a Roman soldier poked Christ with and pieces of wood from both Noah's Ark and the Holy Cross. Try to visit on a Sunday when mass is going on and the whole place is buzzing.

Geghard is probably the finest cave monastery in Armenia. It stands deep in a canyon and blends in with the surrounding cliffs. The complex is partly dug out of the mountainside with annexed buildings. It was supposedly founded in the 4th century but invading armies have left nothing from that time. The two cave churches and vestibules you see today are all from the 13th century. Above the main entrance to the churches is a 10 m passage which leads to a cave chapel that is fully carved out of the mountain and has amazing acoustics. A small peephole in the corner makes it possible to look into the cave chamber below (see picture). The monastery got its name Geghardavank - meaning "the Monastery of the Spear" - since the spear that wounded Christ on the cross was kept here (the spear is now displayed in the Echmiadzin treasury).

Haghpat and Sanahin monasteries lie in plain view of each other separated by a canyon. Haghpat is also on UNESCO's World Heritage list and dates from the 10th century as well, though Sanahin is 50 years younger. Haghpat is a compact monastery complex with several chapels, some fine cross stones (khachkars) and a groomed garden setting. The views are splendid and the village of Haghpat is charming and easygoing.

In a village above Alaverdi lies the monastery complex of Sanahin, which dates back to the 10th century. It is listed on UNESCO World Heritage list along with neighbouring Haghpat monastery due to their architecture style that was developed in Armenia in the 10th to 13th centuries. It is charmingly moss-covered and sits under shady trees in a messy garden, which just adds to the great atmosphere. There are lots of dark corners to be explored and the ancient graveyard offers some strange modern tombstones with pictorial explanations of the cause of death.

Mir Castle is a real 16th-century castle with towers, spires, courtyard and everything. It's one of the few UNESCO sites in Belarus and a must-do day trip from Minsk. The castle has recently been through a total makeover, so it once again is complete. The interior has been cleverly rebuilt so the new modern exhibition rooms morph together with the original structure. Existing castle rooms are set up as dining room, meeting hall, etc. like in the old days, with antique furnitures and paintings. Information is only in Belarusian, but you can make sense of most of the stuff without.
Another great sight in Mir is Mir village itself across the road. Colourful wooden cottages make up most of the village and there are some pretty churches too. It might be your only change to have a peek at rural Belarus.

UNESCO rarely gets it wrong. Amazing buildings, beautiful nature and cultural heritage fill the list of sites around the world. Nestled deep in the pristine Rila Mountains of South-western Bulgaria is the Monastery of Saint Ivan of Rila (aka Rila Monastery). There is little question to those that visit the nearly 1,000 year old site (rebuilt a few times), that the monastery is most worthy of its UNESCO honour. The beautiful building set with a dramatic mountain backdrop are the things that postcards were designed for. Some may dismiss it as touristic. But an overnight stay is well rewarded as the day-tripper leave the place virtually deserted once they head back the the capital. Serene, beautiful, cultural. It's what historical sites were meant to be.

Dubrovnik is the iconic Adriatic medieval walled city. In the Middle Ages it flourished in maritime trading as the city-state of Ragusa and was rivaling Venice. During the Yugoslavian war, in the beginning of the 90's, it was sieged for seven month and got severe damaged by artillery attacks. Today Dubrovnik is again insane pretty and manicured to limit that it's almost too much. Just to top it off, there are beaches (pebbles though, not sand) with the most crystal-clear water you can imagine, but screamingly cold. All this makes of course Dubrovnik to the perfect tourist magnet and the stream of tourist buses also seems never-ending, but it is still possible to find adorable corners, without being run over by sunburned tour group.

When people are talking about enchanting Tallinn, they are talking about Old Town. A neat, UNESCO listed maze of old houses, hidden courtyards and spire topped churches which dates back to the 14th century. Large parts of the huge medieval town wall still stands with imposing gates and tall towers (one even has cannonballs embedded in the wall). The maze is made up of narrow, cobbled lanes - it can hardly become more photogenic than this. Even the occasional Russian tour group seems to fit in well. That said, there are more amber/knitting/souvenir shops than you can poke a stick at (along with a fair share of strip bars), but Old Tallinn has admirable managed to keep its charm without being tarted up or tacky.

Right off the coast of Helsinki, spread out on four tiny islands, lies the maritime fortress complex of Suomenlinna, Fortress of Finland. It was initially built in 1748 by the Swedish to protect Helsingfors (Swedish for Helsinki) against the Russians. As with other big constructions in history, the creator had big expectation to it, in this case the Swedish thought Suomenlinna to be inpenedable... but it wasn't. The Russian took it 1808 and kept it along with the rest of Finland until Finland's independence in 1917. Today people still live on Suomenlinna and it's now an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Half the fun of a visit to Mtskheta is trying to pronounce it correctly. With 5 consonants in a row, it's no easy task. But once you manage to get there, you certainly won't be disappointed. One of the oldest cites in Georgia, the historical monuments of the Mtskheta area are recognized a UNESCO world heritage site. The varying forts, churches, cathedrals and monasteries which surround the tiny town date anywhere from the 3rd century BC to as young as 1,000 years old. Easily doable as a day trip out of the capital, Tbilisi, Mtskheta is the place to get your fix of religious buildings.