Castle towns, mining villages and Hanseatic harbours that the GDP changes of the 20th century left beautifully alone.
The 20th century was hard on central Europe and, paradoxically, easy on its smaller towns. When economic growth bypasses a place, it preserves it. A traveller's list of the towns that benefited from being overlooked.
Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
Loop of the Vltava river, Renaissance castle on the hill above, and the largest castle complex outside Prague. Day-trippers from Salzburg pour in by 11; arrive the night before and the place is yours at sunrise.
Telc, Czech Republic
A perfect Renaissance square painted in pastel arcades. The town caught fire in the 16th century and was rebuilt in one architectural moment, which is why it looks so coherent.
Banska Stiavnica, Slovakia
A 13th-century silver-mining town built into the calderas of an extinct volcano. The artificial lakes around it (the tajchy) were dug to power mining machinery and now make excellent swimming.
Levoca, Slovakia
Inside the Spis region, with one of the largest medieval wooden altars in the world (by Master Paul of Levoca, about 18 metres tall) inside the basilica.
Zamosc, Poland
Late Renaissance ideal city laid out by an Italian architect for Jan Zamoyski in the 1580s. The market square is unusually wide and ringed by Armenian merchant houses.
Torun, Poland
The home of Copernicus, with a virtually intact Gothic old town that escaped the war. The gingerbread is genuinely good.
Wismar and Stralsund, Germany
Two Hanseatic harbour towns on the Baltic, both UNESCO listed, both built on the trade that connected Russia to the Low Countries in the late Middle Ages.
Eger, Hungary
Baroque main square, the northernmost surviving Ottoman minaret in Europe and the Valley of the Beautiful Women, where small wine cellars are dug into the tuff.
