The Most Beautiful Ancient Squares, Streets and Monuments in Europe
5 places in 3 countries · updated 14 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful ancient squares, streets and monuments in Europe are Castel Sant'Angelo (Italy), Trajan's Column (Italy) and Tower of Hercules (Spain). The list covers 5 ancient squares, streets and monuments in 3 countries. Italy has the most, with 3. Last updated 14 October 2026.
Ancient monuments that still stand in Europe's streets survived because cities never stopped using them. A tomb became a fortress, a column became a pedestal for a saint, a lighthouse kept guiding ships, a triumphal arch became a city gate. That continuous use is what separates them from excavated ruins: they are part of the living city, and each carries the marks of every century that adapted it.
Rome holds three of the finest. Castel Sant'Angelo began as the mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian and became a papal fortress linked to the Vatican by a fortified corridor. Trajan's Column, dedicated in 113 AD, winds a continuous relief of the Dacian Wars around its shaft, and the Column of Marcus Aurelius on Piazza Colonna answers it with scenes from the wars of the late 2nd century. Statues of Saint Peter and Saint Paul replaced the emperors on their summits in the 16th century.
Beyond Italy, the Tower of Hercules at A Coruña in Galicia is a Roman lighthouse still in service on the Atlantic coast, its ancient core encased in an 18th-century restoration. In Provence, the Triumphal Arch of Orange, from the reign of Augustus or Tiberius, keeps carved battle scenes and trophies on its three arches.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | Country | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Castel Sant'Angelo | Castle | Italy | |
| 2 | Trajan's Column | Sculpture | Italy | |
| 3 | Tower of Hercules | Fortified tower | Spain | ✓ |
| 4 | Column of Marcus Aurelius | Sculpture | Italy | |
| 5 | Triumphal Arch of Orange | Triumphal arch | France | ✓ |
01 Castel Sant'Angelo
Italy · 1.4 km from Rome41.903° N 12.466° E
Image by rainhard2 from Pixabay Hadrian started building his own tomb in 123 CE and didn't live to see it finished — it was completed in 139 under his successor Antoninus Pius, a cylindrical drum of a monument meant to hold the ashes of an emperor and his family for eternity. Eternity lasted about three centuries as a mausoleum.
Did you know? The current bronze angel by Peter Anton von Verschaffelt replaced a 1536 marble Saint Michael by Raffaello da Montelupo in 1753.
02 Trajan's Column
Colonna Traiana
Italy · 0.3 km from Rome41.896° N 12.484° E
Raffaele pagani · CC BY-SA 4.0 Trajan's Column is a 30-metre marble shaft, 35 m with its pedestal, that has stood in Trajan's Forum just north of the Roman Forum since it was dedicated on 12 May 113. It celebrates Emperor Trajan's two wars against the Dacians in 101-102 and 105-106, and it was most likely designed under the architect Apollodorus of Damascus.
Did you know? The lettering of the dedication on the base became the classic model of Roman square capitals, and Carol Twombly based her 1989 Trajan typeface on it.
03 Tower of Hercules
Torre de Hércules
Spain · 6.3 km from A Coruña43.386° N 8.406° W
- UNESCO World Heritage
Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez (Lmbuga) · CC BY-SA 3.0 There were dozens of lighthouses like this one once, scattered around the edges of the Roman world. There is exactly one left that still works.
Did you know? Of the tower's roughly 55 metres, about 34 are surviving Roman masonry; the top 21 metres were added during the 18th-century restoration.
04 Column of Marcus Aurelius
Colonna di Marco Aurelio
Italy · 0.3 km from Rome41.901° N 12.480° E
Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0 The Column of Marcus Aurelius stands in Piazza Colonna, on the Via del Corso in the centre of Rome, in front of Palazzo Chigi, the seat of the Italian government. It was raised to honour the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his campaigns against the Germanic and Sarmatian peoples north of the Danube, fought from 169 until his death in 180, and was completed around 193.
05 Triumphal Arch of Orange
Arc antique d'Orange
France44.142° N 4.805° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Xavier D'ABRIGEON · CC BY-SA 4.0 The Triumphal Arch of Orange is one of the best-preserved Roman arches anywhere, and the oldest surviving example of the three-bay design later used for the Arch of Septimius Severus and the Arch of Constantine in Rome itself. It stands on the old Via Agrippa at the northern entrance to Orange, a town in the Rhône valley.
Did you know? A single bronze letter L from the lost dedication was found in the 19th century and then mislaid; only the fixing holes survive.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful ancient squares, streets and monuments in Europe?
- On our list, Castel Sant'Angelo (Italy) ranks first, followed by Trajan's Column (Italy) and Tower of Hercules (Spain).
- Which country has the most ancient squares, streets and monuments in Europe?
- In our collection, the most come from Italy (3), France (1) and Spain (1).
- What was Castel Sant'Angelo originally?
- It was built in the 130s AD as the mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian and his family. In the Middle Ages the popes turned it into a fortress and refuge, connected to the Vatican by the Passetto di Borgo.
- What is the oldest lighthouse still in use?
- The Tower of Hercules in A Coruña, built by the Romans around the 2nd century AD, is the oldest Roman lighthouse still working. It was restored in the 1790s and became a World Heritage site in 2009.
- What does Trajan's Column show?
- Its spiral relief tells the story of Trajan's two campaigns against the Dacians in the early 2nd century, with more than two thousand figures. The emperor's ashes were placed in its base.
- How many ancient squares, streets and monuments are on this list in Europe?
- The list covers 5 ancient squares, streets and monuments in 3 countries. Italy has the most, with 3.