Historic Center of Gjirokaster (Albania)

Slate-roofed houses, winding streets paved with limestone and a castle assembled from rock hewn from the surrounding mountains, this is the UNESCO listed Old Town of Gjirokastër. In the Old Town, you'll find several sights, such as the bazaar, the Zekate house and Skenduli house. The Old Town is also home to an old mosque.

Historic Center of Berat (Albania)

Berat is a UNESCO town located in the center ofAlbania and famous for its Ottoman-era buildings. The town is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities and absolutely amazing. Berat was an ancient Illyrian settlement turned Byzantine frontier town. Evenly spaced portals cut into the stone facades lend it the famous epithet: 'The City of a Thousand Windows'. This town is a must-see in Albania for history buffs and culture lovers alike.

Mostar Bridge (Mostar, Bosnia)

The historic town of Mostar, spanning a deep valley of the Neretva River, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries as an Ottoman frontier town and during the Austro-Hungarian period in the 19th and 20th centuries. Mostar has long been known for its old Turkish houses and Old Bridge, Stari Most, after which it is named. In the 1990s conflict, however, most of the historic town and the Old Bridge, designed by the renowned architect Sinan, was destroyed. The Old Bridge was recently rebuilt and many of the edifices in the Old Town have been restored or rebuilt with the contribution of an international scientific committee established by UNESCO. The Old Bridge area, with its pre-Ottoman, eastern Ottoman, Mediterranean and western European architectural features, is an fantastic example of a multicultural urban settlement. The reconstructed Old Bridge and Old City of Mostar is a symbol of reconciliation, international co-operation and of the coexistence of diverse cultural, ethnic and religious communities.

Nessebar Ancient City (Nessebar, Bulgaria)

Nessebar is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Region. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations on the Black Sea. Nessebar is a rich city-museum definite by more than three millennia of ever-changing history. Nessebar has on several occasion found itself on the frontier of a threatened empire, and as such, it is a town with a rich history. The ancient part of town is situated on a peninsula connected to the mainland by a narrow man-mad isthmus, and it bears evidence of occupation by a variety of different civilizations over the course of its existence. Its numerous historic buildings declared Nessebar a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983

Rila Monastery (Borovets, Bulgaria)

Rila Monastery was founded in the 10th century by St John of Rila, a hermit canonized by the Orthodx Church. His ascetic dwelling and tomb became a holy site and were transformed into a monastic complex which played an important role in the spiritual and social life of medieval Bulgaria. Destroyed by fire at the beginning of the 19th century, the complex was rebuilt between 1834 and 1862. It is a characteristic example of the Bulgarian renaissance; the monument symbolized the awareness of a Slavic cultural identity following centuries of occupation.

Dubrovnik, Croatia

The ‘Pearl of the Adriatic’, situated on the Dalmatian coast, became an important Mediterranean Sea power from the 13th century onwards. Although severely damaged by an earthquake in 1667, Dubrovnik managed to preserve its beautiful Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces, and fountains. The Old City of Dubrovnik is one of the fastest rising destinations for tourists in the country and is one of the cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Diocletian's Palace (Split, Croatia)

The ruins of Diocletian's Palace, built between the late 3rd and the early 4th centuries A.D., can be found throughout the city. The cathedral was built in the Middle Ages, reusing materials from the ancient mausoleum. Twelfth- and 13th-century Romanesque churches, medieval fortifications, 15th-century Gothic palaces and other palaces in Renaissance and Baroque style make up the rest of the protected area.

Plitvice Lakes National Park (Plitvice, Croatia)

The Plitvice Lakes National Park is renowned for its sixteen beautiful lakes, linked to each other by cascading waterfalls. Founded in 1949 and located in Croatia's mountainous north, the stunning park has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1979. Its status as a UNESCO site comes from its unusual geology, which is the result of thousands of years of water flowing over limestone and chalk to create natural travertine dams. As well as creating the park’s famous lakes and waterfalls, this geological process has also formed some impressive caves that make for wonderful photo opportunities amidst the dense forest.

Lake Ohrid (Ohrid, Macedonia)

Both the town of Ohrid and Lake Ohrid and recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is one of the most biodiverse freshwater bodies of water in the world with many endemic species. Situated on the shores of the lake, the town of Ohrid is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Built mainly between the 7th and 19th centuries, it has the oldest Slav monastery and more than 800 Byzantine-style icons dating from the 11th to the end of the 14th century. In the shallow waters near the shores of the lake, three sites testify to the presence of prehistoric pile dwellings, and small Lin Peninsula is the site of the remains of an Early Christian church founded in the middle of the 6th century.

Kotor, Montenegro

In the Middle Ages, this natural harbor on the Adriatic coast in Montenegro was an important artistic and commercial center with its own famous schools of masonry and iconography. A large number of the monuments (including four Romanesque churches and the town walls) were seriously damaged by the 1979 earthquake but the town has been restored, largely with UNESCO’s help.

Sighisoara Citadel (Sighisoara, Romania)

Founded by German craftsmen and merchants known as the Saxons of Transylvania, the Historic Center of Sighisoara is a well preserved small medieval city built by Saxon settlers. It was strategically placed on a hill, City Hill, as protection against Tatars and other invaders from the steppes in the East. The Historic Centre of Sighi?oara is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list since 1999. The town played an important strategic and commercial role on the fringes of central Europe for several centuries.

The best way to visit the historic center of Sighi?oara is on foot. The citadel is small and with good weather it is very pleasant to walk along the narrow streets and stop at one of the many cafés for a drink. The citadel is in fantastic conditions. It looks and feels as if it still is a medieval town.

The Works of Joze Plecnik (Ljubljana, Slovenia)

The works Jože Plecnik carried in Ljubljana between World War I and World War II present an example of a human centred urban design that successively changed the identity of the city following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when it changed from a provincial city into the symbolic capital of the Slovenian people. The architect Jože Plecnik contributed to this transformation with his personal, profoundly human vision for the city, based on an architectural dialogue with the older city while serving the needs of emerging modern 20th century society. The property consists of a series of public spaces (squares, parks, streets, promenades, bridges) and public institutions (national library, churches, markets, funerary complex) that were strategically integrated into the pre-existing urban, natural and cultural context and contributed to the city’s new identity.

Ruins of Butrint (Albania)

Butrint is an archaeological site that provides valuable evidence of ancient and medieval civilizations on the territory of modern Albania. The site, on a hill next to a lake connecting to the sea by a canal, has been inhabited since prehistoric times. A Greek colony was founded there in the late 7th century BC. Roman occupation prompted the development of the city, during the Christian era, it became the seat of a bishopric. Many religious structures were built by the Christians. The city's last era of prosperity was under Byzantine administration (Epirus). After a short period of occupation by the Venetians (late 14th century), the city under Ottoman administration was threatened by the marshes that formed around the lake and was abandoned by the population.