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NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union

  • Canary IslandsThe Canary Islands got their name from dogs, not from canary birds. The bird was named after the islands.
  • SicilyA Byzantine commander's crimes helped start the Muslim conquest of Sicily in 827.
  • SardiniaSardinia is dotted with some 7,000 round stone tower-fortresses called nuraghe. Villages built them from about 1500 BC.
  • HamburgHamburg has more bridges than London, Amsterdam, and Venice put together. Around 2,500 cross its rivers and canals.
  • Galicia (Spain)Argentines and Uruguayans commonly call every Spaniard a Galician. So many emigrants came from Galicia.
  • Ionian IslandsThe Ionian Islands of Greece were never conquered by the Ottomans.
  • PiedmontPiedmont's name means "at the foot of the mountains." The Italian region is wrapped by the Alps and Apennines.
  • PeloponneseThe Peloponnese is named for Pelops, a hero of Greek legend said to have conquered the whole region.
  • DenmarkIn 1658, Swedish armies crossed frozen straits and later besieged Copenhagen for two years.
  • Upper NormandyUpper Normandy was a French region for only sixty years. It vanished when Normandy was reunited in 2016.
  • ViennaVienna's socialist city government built over 60,000 apartments between 1925 and 1934.
  • Isles of ScillyOne daffodil a year is the rent for the uninhabited parts of the Isles of Scilly, a small archipelago off the southwestern tip of mainland Cornwall. The Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust holds those islands, islets and rocks on a lease from…
  • Lower NormandyIn June 1944, D-Day put Lower Normandy at the center of the Allied invasion. Many towns were left in ruins.
  • TuscanyThe Italian language is really the Florentine dialect of Tuscany. Famous writers' prestige spread it over Italy.
  • CeutaCeuta covers only 18.5 square kilometres of the North African coast, yet it is a Spanish city, and the Spanish mainland lies just 17 km away across the Strait of Gibraltar. Its shoreline sits where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic…
  • PragueIn 1618, Prague's second defenestration ignited the Thirty Years' War. Prague's population fell from 60,000 to 20,000.
  • LiechtensteinIn March 2007, a Swiss infantry unit of 170 men lost its way during a training exercise and accidentally crossed into Liechtenstein. The soldiers had marched 1.5 kilometres into foreign territory before they realised their mistake and…

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