Historic towns and streets to film in
80 of them in 26 European countries, 55 with a photo and 4 with practical details the location publishes itself. Search and put three side by side in the locations search.
Old towns, squares and streets that can double for a period without dressing out a modern skyline.
Where they are
- Greece 7
- United Kingdom 6
- Italy 5
- Spain 5
- Lithuania 4
- Malta 4
- Portugal 4
- Serbia 4
- Slovakia 4
- Bulgaria 3
- Estonia 3
- Germany 3
- Hungary 3
- Romania 3
- Slovenia 3
- Belgium 2
- Croatia 2
- Czech Republic 2
- Finland 2
- Latvia 2
- Netherlands 2
- Poland 2
- Sweden 2
- Austria 1
- France 1
- Norway 1
Historic towns and streets in Greece 7
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Chalkida
Historic town & street
The main town of Evia on the narrow Evripos Strait, linked to the mainland by a sliding bridge, with a working waterfront used for town and bridge scenes.
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Karystos
Historic town & street
A harbour town on the southern coast of Evia below Mount Ochi, documented as a filming location in the Hellenic Film Commission's catalogue.
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Kavala
Historic town & street
A port city on Greece's northern coast with a Byzantine aqueduct, a hilltop old town and a working harbour, used for historic townscape and waterfront scenes.
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Nafplio
Historic town & street
Former first capital of modern Greece on the Argolic Gulf, with a Venetian old town, two hilltop fortresses and a small fort standing on an islet in the harbour.
Ano Poli (Thessaloniki Old Town)
Historic town & street
Hillside old quarter of Thessaloniki above the Byzantine walls, with narrow lanes, Ottoman-era houses and views down over the modern city and the Thermaic Gulf.
Chania Old Town
Historic town & street
Venetian harbour town on Crete with a stone lighthouse, waterfront arsenali warehouses, a former mosque and a maze of Venetian and Ottoman-era lanes behind the quay.
Corfu Old Town
Historic town & street
Fortified Ionian old town shaped by Venetian, French and British rule, with two citadels, a cricket ground on the Spianada and narrow Venetian-style lanes known as kantounia.
Historic towns and streets in the United Kingdom 6
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Beamish Museum
Historic town & street
Open-air museum in County Durham recreating a Georgian, Victorian and 1950s north-east England landscape with a working colliery, tramway, town street and farm.
Black Country Living Museum
Historic town & street
Open air museum on a former colliery site in Dudley with a rebuilt 1930s high street, canal arm and boat dock, back to back houses, pit head and working workshops.
Seen in: Peaky Blinders
Blists Hill Victorian Town
Historic town & street
Reconstructed late Victorian industrial town in the Ironbridge Gorge with a high street of shops, a bank, chapel, foundry, blast furnaces, canal inclined plane and mine.
Castlefield
Historic town & street
Mixed historic and modern quarter of central Manchester with a Roman fort site, canals, red-brick Victorian warehouses and a disused railway viaduct alongside glass towers.
Seen in: Peaky Blinders, Fool Me Once, World on Fire, The Irregulars, Cold Feet, Coronation Street
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Northern Quarter
Historic town & street
Grid of red-brick streets and back alleys in central Manchester whose look has doubled for other cities on screen, from 1940s Brooklyn to 1980s Manhattan.
Seen in: Captain America, The Crown, It's a Sin, Boiling Point, Morbius
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Halifax town centre
Historic town & street
West Yorkshire mill town with Georgian townhouses, a Victorian arcade, cobbled streets, pubs and a working indoor market, used repeatedly for period and present-day drama.
Seen in: Ackley Bridge, Gentleman Jack, Last Tango in Halifax
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Historic towns and streets in Italy 5
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Ortigia
Historic town & street
Historic island core of Syracuse in Sicily, with a baroque cathedral built into the columns of a Greek temple, narrow lanes, a waterfront promenade and a Norman castle at its tip.
Porticoes of Bologna
Historic town & street
Covered walkways lining central Bologna's streets, including the roughly 3.8 km arcade climbing to the Sanctuary of San Luca, a UNESCO World Heritage arrangement of porticoes.
Sassi di Matera
Historic town & street
Ancient cave-dwelling districts carved into a limestone ravine, frequently standing in for biblical-era Jerusalem.
Seen in: The Passion of the Christ (2004), Wonder Woman (2017), No Time to Die (2021)
Tropea
Historic town & street
Clifftop town on Calabria's Tyrrhenian coast, with a historic centre of stone lanes and balconies overlooking the beach and the offshore Santa Maria dell'Isola sanctuary.
Quartiere Garbatella
Historic town & street
A 1920s garden-city district of Rome built around communal courtyards, with low three-storey villini in varied styles rather than uniform apartment blocks.
Seen in: Caro Diario, Esterno Notte, Gli anni più belli, I Cesaroni
Water and mains power on site, wheelchair accessible, paved road access for large vehicles
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Historic towns and streets in Spain 5
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Albarracin
Historic town & street
Walled hill town of pink plastered houses, wooden balconies and stepped lanes above a river gorge, with a castle, cathedral and long stretch of town wall.
Belchite (old town)
Historic town & street
The ruined shell of a town destroyed in the 1937 Battle of Belchite, left standing as a memorial with intact facades, a bell tower and rubble-filled streets open to visitors.
Seen in: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Garachico
Historic town & street
Small port town on the north coast rebuilt after the 1706 eruption, with cobbled colonial streets, balconied houses, convents, a sea castle and lava rock pools.
Poble Espanyol
Historic town & street
Open-air architecture museum on Montjuic built for the 1929 exhibition, recreating streets and squares from across Spain with more than 100 full-scale building facades, workshops and courtyards.
Casco Histórico y Mercado de Villa de Vallecas
Historic town & street
The old quarter of Villa de Vallecas in southeast Madrid, with its historic square and adjoining municipal market, catalogued by Madrid Film Office for street and market scenes.
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Historic towns and streets in Lithuania 4
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Laisves Aleja
Historic town & street
Pedestrian avenue of about 1.6 kilometres lined with interwar modernist blocks, shops, cafes and lime trees, running from the Old Town to the basilica.
Klaipeda Theatre Square
Historic town & street
Cobbled square in the old quarter framed by German half timbered and 19th century houses, the drama theatre and the Simon Dach fountain.
Uzupis
Historic town & street
River district next to the Old Town with narrow cobbled lanes, low workshops, courtyards and artist studios, on foot from the main historic locations.
Vilnius Old Town streets
Historic town & street
Pilies, Didzioji, Universiteto and Ausros Vartu streets form a compact grid of baroque and classical facades, arched gateways and courtyards that stand in for 19th century Europe.
Seen in: Sisi, Catherine the Great, War and Peace, Clark
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Historic towns and streets in Malta 4
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Floriana
Historic town & street
A fortified town directly outside Valletta's gates, with 17th-century bastions, gardens and government buildings, listed in the Malta Film Commission's location catalogue.
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Mdina
Historic town & street
Walled medieval hilltop city of narrow honey-coloured limestone streets, baroque palaces and a monumental main gate.
Seen in: Game of Thrones (season 1, King's Landing)
Valletta Historic Centre
Historic town & street
UNESCO-listed sixteenth-century fortified capital on a narrow peninsula, its grid of limestone streets lined with baroque churches, auberges and balconied townhouses.
Seen in: World War Z (2013), Murder on the Orient Express (2017), By the Sea (2015)
Birgu (Vittoriosa)
Historic town & street
One of the Three Cities on Malta's Grand Harbour, with a fortified waterfront, narrow streets and a working marina, listed in the Malta Film Commission's location catalogue.
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Historic towns and streets in Portugal 4
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Alfama
Historic town & street
Lisbon's oldest quarter, a hillside maze of steep cobbled lanes, tiled facades and tram lines above the Tagus.
Seen in: Night Train to Lisbon (2013)
Cacela Velha
Historic town & street
Small fortified hilltop village on the eastern Algarve coast overlooking the Ria Formosa lagoon, with whitewashed houses, a small fort and a parish church around a single square.
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Evora Historic Centre
Historic town & street
UNESCO-listed Alentejo city within Roman and medieval walls, with a Roman temple, whitewashed streets, a granite cathedral and the bone-lined Capela dos Ossos.
Marvao
Historic town & street
Walled hilltop village on the Spanish border in the Serra de Sao Mamede, with a castle, whitewashed houses and long views over the surrounding plain.
Historic towns and streets in Serbia 4
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Knez Mihailova Street
Historic town & street
Main pedestrian street of Belgrade lined with late nineteenth century facades, running from Terazije square to the Kalemegdan fortress.
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Petrovaradin Suburbium
Historic town & street
Baroque lower town below Petrovaradin fortress at Novi Sad, with about a hundred artist studios, restaurants, cafes, museums and galleries.
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Tesnjar
Historic town & street
Old bazaar quarter of Valjevo along the Kolubara river, a cobbled uphill street of single storey houses, workshops and taverns.
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Kragujevac Old Town Centre
Historic town & street
Pedestrian centre of Kragujevac with a group of late nineteenth and early twentieth century public buildings including the court, high school, theatre and national bank.
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Historic towns and streets in Slovakia 4
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Banska Stiavnica
Historic town & street
UNESCO listed mining town in central Slovakia, with a preserved medieval core on steep slopes, two castles, mine buildings and artificial water reservoirs.
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Bardejov
Historic town & street
UNESCO listed town in eastern Slovakia with a walled Gothic centre, a long market square of burgher houses and an eighteenth century Jewish suburb.
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Bratislava Old Town Streets
Historic town & street
Compact medieval centre of narrow lanes, squares and Baroque townhouses, largely pedestrian and close to the Danube.
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Levoca
Historic town & street
Walled town in the Spis region with a Renaissance square, town hall, Gothic church and streets of preserved merchant houses.
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Historic towns and streets in Bulgaria 3
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Koprivshtitsa
Historic town & street
Protected mountain town of about 380 listed houses in painted National Revival style, with cobbled streets, humpback bridges and a river through the centre.
Nesebar Old Town
Historic town & street
Rocky peninsula joined by an isthmus, with medieval stone and timber churches, wooden houses on stone bases, narrow lanes and harbour walls.
Plovdiv Old Town and Nebet Tepe
Historic town & street
Cobbled hill quarter of overhanging National Revival houses, walled lanes, Roman remains and the ruined citadel of Nebet Tepe at the top.
Historic towns and streets in Estonia 3
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Tallinn Old Town
Historic town & street
Walled medieval town of cobbled lanes, merchant houses, guild halls, churches and defence towers on two levels, in everyday use and covered by city filming permits.
Sillamae town centre
Historic town & street
Post war town built for a uranium processing plant, laid out as a Stalinist axis of pastel apartment blocks with a culture house and a stairway down to the sea.
Tartu Town Hall Square
Historic town & street
Sloping neoclassical square in the centre of Tartu, closed at the top by the 1789 town hall and lined with pastel merchant houses running down to the river.
Historic towns and streets in Germany 3
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Boettcherstrasse
Historic town & street
Short brick expressionist street of the 1920s between the Bremen market square and the Weser, with sculpted gables, courtyards, small museums and workshops.
Görlitz Old Town
Historic town & street
War-spared old town of around 4,000 listed buildings ranging from Gothic and Renaissance to Baroque and Wilhelminian styles.
Seen in: The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inglourious Basterds, The Reader
Kraemerbruecke Erfurt
Historic town & street
A medieval stone arch bridge of 1325 across the Gera river in Erfurt's old town, still lined with inhabited half-timbered shop buildings, one of the few such bridges left north of the Alps.
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Historic towns and streets in Hungary 3
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Aquincum Museum
Historic town & street
The excavated civilian town of the Roman settlement of Aquincum in north Budapest, with an open-air archaeological park of house foundations and a museum building of Roman finds from the site.
Andrassy Avenue
Historic town & street
Tree-lined boulevard of ornate 19th-century palaces and villas running from the city centre to City Park, with the Metro's first continental underground line beneath it.
Seen in: Munich, Bel Ami, Houdini, Genius: Picasso
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Sopron Old Town
Historic town & street
Medieval old town near the Austrian border with an almost intact street plan, a firewatch tower and Castle District monuments, named a strong option for historical productions by the national film commission.
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Historic towns and streets in Romania 3
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Large Square (Piata Mare), Sibiu
Historic town & street
Wide baroque square in the upper town, framed by the Brukenthal palace, the council tower, arcaded houses and cobbles, with lanes and stairs leading off it.
Sighisoara Citadel
Historic town & street
Inhabited medieval citadel on a hill, with cobbled lanes, guild towers, a clock tower, covered stair and burgher houses, on the UNESCO list.
Union Square, Oradea
Historic town & street
Riverside square lined with restored art nouveau and eclectic buildings, including the Black Eagle Palace and its glazed arcade.
Historic towns and streets in Slovenia 3
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Ptuj Old Town
Historic town & street
Oldest town in Slovenia, with a Roman and medieval street plan, a monastery, a city tower and low painted houses climbing from the Drava to the castle hill.
Skofja Loka Old Town
Historic town & street
Walled medieval town square with pastel merchant houses, a plague column, a stone bridge over the Selscica and the bishops castle on the slope above.
Tartini Square, Piran
Historic town & street
Oval paved square on the site of the filled inner harbour of Piran, ringed by Venetian and neoclassical fronts, with narrow lanes running to the sea walls.
Seen in: The Union
Historic towns and streets in Belgium 2
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Bruges Historic Centre
Historic town & street
Intact medieval city centre of canals, cobbled streets, stepped-gable brick houses and the towering thirteenth-century Belfry.
Seen in: In Bruges, The White Queen
Janseniustoren
Historic town & street
A squat medieval defence tower on the banks of the Dijle in central Leuven, standing among old mill buildings and narrow riverside streets.
Historic towns and streets in Croatia 2
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Dubrovnik Old Town
Historic town & street
Walled seaside old town with intact medieval ramparts, baroque stone streets and fortresses rising straight from the Adriatic.
Seen in: Game of Thrones (King's Landing, from season 2), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), Robin Hood (2018)
Oktogon Passage
Historic town & street
A covered shopping arcade with a vaulted glass roof linking Ilica and Trg Petra Preradovića in central Zagreb, catalogued by the Zagreb Film Office as an architectural location.
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Historic towns and streets in the Czech Republic 2
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Český Krumlov
Historic town & street
Renaissance and baroque town wrapped in a tight bend of the Vltava river beneath a painted castle tower.
Seen in: The Adventures of Pinocchio (1996), Hostel (2005), The Illusionist (2006)
Štramberk
Historic town & street
A small town in the Beskyd foothills known as Moravia's Bethlehem, with half-timbered 18th and 19th century cottages, a Baroque town square and the Gothic Trúba tower, the last remnant of its 13th-century castle.
Historic towns and streets in Finland 2
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Senate Square
Historic town & street
Neoclassical square by Carl Ludvig Engel framed by Helsinki Cathedral, the Government Palace and the university, long used as a stand-in for imperial St Petersburg and Soviet-era Moscow.
Seen in: Reds (1981), Gorky Park (1983)
Pispala Area
Historic town & street
A protected hillside neighbourhood in Tampere of narrow streets and restored wooden houses between two lakes, home to Rajaportti, the oldest public sauna in Finland.
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Historic towns and streets in Latvia 2
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Kuldiga Old Town
Historic town & street
Small Kurzeme town of low wooden and brick houses on a regular street grid, listed as a world heritage site, with the Venta rapids and a long brick road bridge.
Riga Old Town
Historic town & street
Compact medieval core on the Daugava with cobbled lanes such as Jauniela, merchant houses, guild halls, church spires and squares, listed as a world heritage site.
Historic towns and streets in the Netherlands 2
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Amsterdam Canal Ring
Historic town & street
Seventeenth-century ring of tree-lined canals with gabled townhouses, humpback bridges and houseboats.
Seen in: The Fault in Our Stars, Ocean's Twelve
Vestingmuseum Naarden
Historic town & street
Museum inside the underground casemates of the star-shaped 17th-century fortress town of Naarden, with brick tunnels, powder rooms and ramparts open to visitors.
Historic towns and streets in Poland 2
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Kazimierz, Kraków
Historic town & street
Kraków's former Jewish quarter, where synagogues, cobbled lanes and tenement courtyards still follow the pre-war street layout.
Seen in: Schindler's List (1993)
Plac Rybny, Będzin
Historic town & street
A small historic square in Będzin's old town named after its former fish market, framed by townhouses and used by the city for public events.
Open public square with parking nearby
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Historic towns and streets in Sweden 2
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Visby
Historic town & street
Medieval walled town on Gotland and a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a 3.4 kilometre town wall, cobbled lanes and ruined medieval churches.
Ystad
Historic town & street
Medieval coastal town with half-timbered houses, cobbled streets and a sandy Baltic shoreline, home to the Ystad Studios film facility.
Seen in: Wallander (Swedish TV series, 2005-2013), Wallander (BBC, 2008-2016)
Historic towns and streets in Austria 1
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Salzburg Old Town
Historic town & street
Baroque old town of church domes, squares and narrow lanes beneath the Hohensalzburg fortress on the Salzach river.
Seen in: The Sound of Music
Historic towns and streets in France 1
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Cite Plantagenet, Le Mans
Historic town & street
Walled old town of Le Mans with Gallo-Roman ramparts, cobbled lanes, timber framed and Renaissance houses, staircases and a cathedral close.
Historic towns and streets in Norway 1
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Roros Old Town
Historic town & street
A UNESCO-listed former copper-mining town of streets lined with tarred timber houses, with slag-heap and smelter backdrops largely unchanged since the 17th and 18th centuries.
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