Eleven Central European Cities from Bonn to Iasi

Bonn sits on the Rhine about 24 kilometers south-southeast of Cologne. It was West Germany's capital from 1949 to 1990 and the reunified nation's seat of government until 1999, and it still keeps about a third of federal ministerial jobs under the Berlin-Bonn Act.

Würzburg stands on the Main in Lower Franconia and was Christianized in 686 by Irish missionaries. About 90 percent of the city was destroyed in a British firebombing raid on 16 March 1945, and the Würzburg Residence, built between 1720 and 1744 with a Tiepolo ceiling fresco, was reconstructed afterward.

Innsbruck lies on the River Inn about 30 kilometers from the Brenner Pass and became capital of all Tyrol in 1429. Emperor Maximilian I made it a European cultural center in the 15th century, and it hosted the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976.

Salzburg rises on the Salzach near the German border, on the site of the Roman settlement of Iuvavum. It has been an archbishopric seat since 798, is the birthplace of Mozart, and its Baroque historic center became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

Graz is the capital of Styria on the Mur and Austria's second-largest city after Vienna. It grew from a fortified Babenberg settlement of the 12th century into a Habsburg residence and a stronghold against the Ottomans, and was European Capital of Culture in 2003.

Vrhnika in Slovenia's Inner Carniola was the Roman settlement of Nauportus, where river cargo was moved onto pack animals or carts. It stayed one of Carniola's wealthiest market towns until the Austrian Southern Railway bypassed it in the 1840s.

Debrecen is Hungary's second-largest city after Budapest. In 1849 the dethronement of the Habsburg dynasty was declared in its Reformed Great Church, and it served again as the capital in 1944 and 1945.

Rzeszów, on the Wisłok River, received town rights in 1354 from King Casimir III on a trade route linking Europe to the Ottoman Empire. Today it is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and a logistics hub for supplies moving into Ukraine.

Szczebrzeszyn is a small town in the Lublin Voivodeship documented from 1352 and called the Capital City of the Polish Language for a tongue-twisting local saying. Between May and November 1942 more than 5,500 of its Jewish residents were transported to extermination camps.

Timisoara on the Bega River was conquered by Austria from the Ottoman Turks in 1716. It had street lighting in 1760 and was the first city in Europe lit by electric street lamps, in 1884, and the Romanian Revolution began there in December 1989.

Iasi in Moldavia was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1564 to 1859, then of the United Principalities until 1862, and the capital of Romania from 1916 to 1918. It remains one of Romania's leading academic and cultural centres.