Curated playlist
Capitals of former countries
- Austin, TexasAustin, Texas, residents physically blocked men sent to carry the capital's documents to Houston.
- Richmond, VirginiaIn 1781, Benedict Arnold's Loyalist troops burned Richmond and Governor Thomas Jefferson fled.
- GdańskThe first shots of World War II were fired at Westerplatte, in Gdańsk. Decades later, the city helped end communism.
- FlorenceFlorence is the city where the piano and opera were both invented. It began as a Roman army camp in 59 BC.
- MunichMunich began when a duke burned a rival's bridge to seize the salt trade. Historians date the fire to around 1158.
- TurinTurin drove Italian unification, then lost the capital twice. It went to Florence in 1865, then Rome by 1870.
- YorkVikings attacked York on All Saints' Day in 866, when its leaders were gathered in the cathedral.
- Córdoba, SpainBy the 10th century, Córdoba, Spain was the second-largest city in Europe. It held more than 80 libraries and schools.
- RijekaThe first self-propelled torpedo was tested on a launch ramp in Rijeka in 1866.
- HoustonHouston voters rejected zoning in 1948, 1962 and 1993, so it is the largest U.S. city without it.
- VeniceVenice has 472 bridges and no roads in its historic heart. The city sits on 126 islands in a shallow lagoon.
- East BerlinBy 1960, more than a thousand East Germans a day were fleeing to West Berlin, and the Wall followed in 1961.
- KrakówEvery hour, a trumpet call from a Kraków church tower breaks off mid-melody.
- GenoaGenoese bankers quietly financed the Spanish Empire for decades. The Italian port city ruled through credit, not armies.
- LiègeIn 1345, the citizens of Liège defeated their prince-bishop and handed city government to 32 guilds.
- RavennaEmperor Honorius moved his court to Ravenna in 402 partly because its marshes made siege difficult.
- DubrovnikDubrovnik paid tribute to the Ottoman sultan for over four centuries and profited from it.
- ValenciaAfter a deadly 1957 flood, Valencia moved its river and turned the dry bed into a park.
- RegensburgRegensburg was once five separate states inside one set of city walls.
- KolkataKolkata, known as Calcutta until its official name changed in 2001, is a city whose founder a court refused to name. In 2003, answering a public petition, the Calcutta High Court ruled that the city does not have a founder at all. That is…
- HyderabadHyderabad began as an answer to a water problem. In 1591 the Qutb Shahi ruler Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah founded a new city on the banks of the Musi River, because the fortress capital of Golconda kept running short of water. Today Hyderabad…
- IstanbulIn 1453, Sultan Mehmed II captured Constantinople after a 55-day siege. Hours later he made Hagia Sophia a mosque.
- ConstantinopleA Hungarian gunsmith named Urban built the cannon that finally broke Constantinople's walls.