In the very centre of modern Seoul, ringed by glass towers and the rush of a capital city, sits a palace unlike any other in Korea. Deoksugung is a compound

Imagine a palace that turns its back on centuries of tradition and stares boldly across the water toward Europe. That is Dolmabahce, the great nineteenth-century residence of the Ottoman sultans,

On a green island in a lake just west of Stockholm stands one of the loveliest royal palaces in all of Europe, a place where the grandeur of the French

In the heart of Dublin, on a site that has been a centre of power since the earliest days of the city, stands a complex of towers, courtyards, and grand

High in the Andes, at an altitude of some two thousand eight hundred meters, the old city of Quito spreads across a mountain valley beneath the volcanoes of Ecuador. At

On the Black Sea coast just north of the Bulgarian city of Varna, set amid a vast and beautiful park that runs down to the water, stands one of the

High on the plateau of northern Ethiopia, where the air is cool and the mountains stretch to the horizon, stands a cluster of stone castles that seem to have wandered

On the eastern side of the great central square of Mexico City, the vast plaza known as the Zocalo, stretches a long facade of reddish stone that has stood at

Versailles may be the most famous of France’s royal palaces, but it is not the oldest or, some would say, the most loved by the monarchs who lived in it.

In the heart of modern Seoul, surrounded by glass towers and the roar of one of Asia’s great cities, lies a vast and tranquil world of wooden halls, painted eaves,