The old town of a city or town is its historic or original core. Although the city is usually larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations. There are many places throughout the world named old town (and this is sometimes construed as a proper noun and capitalized).
Historic city centers
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10Kairouan
Kairouan, also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan, is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670.
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10Medina of Essaouira (Mogador)
The Medina of Essaouira, formerly named Mogador (name originating from the Phoenician word Migdol meaning a «small fortress»), is an outstanding example of a fortified town of the mid-eighteenth century, surrounded by a wall influenced by the Vauban model.
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10Medina of Fez (Fes el Bali)
Fes el Bali (Old Fes) is the oldest walled part of Fes, Morocco. Fes el Bali was originally founded as the capital of the Idrisid dynasty between 789 and 808 AD.
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10Medina of Marrakesh
Founded in 1070-1072 by the Almoravids (1056-1147), capital of the Almohads (1147-1269), Marrakesh was, for a long time, a major political, economic and cultural centre of the western Muslim world, reigning in North Africa and Andalusia.
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10Medina of Tetouan (Titawin)
The Medina of Tetouan developed on the steep slopes of the Jebel Dersa. In the Islamic period it had particular importance from the 8th century onwards since it served as the point of connection between Morocco and Andalusia.
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10New Town, Edinburgh
The New Town is a central area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It is often considered to be a masterpiece of city planning and, together with the Old Town, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. It was built in stages between 1767 and around 1850, and retains much of the original neo-classical and Georgian period architecture.
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10Old (Medieval) City of Rhodes
Old (Medieval) City of Rhodes. The Order of St John of Jerusalem occupied Rhodes from 1309 to 1523 and set about transforming the city into a stronghold. It subsequently came under Turkish and Italian rule.
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10Old City of Bern
The Old City of Bern is the medieval city center of Bern, Switzerland. Built on a narrow hill surrounded on three sides by the Aare River, its compact layout has remained essentially unchanged since its construction during the 12th to the 15th century.
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10Old City of Dubrovnik
Dubrovnik is a Croatian city on the Adriatic Sea, in the region of Dalmatia. Old City of Dubrovnik. In 1979, the city of Dubrovnik joined the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
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10Old City of Quebec
Old Quebec is a historic neighbourhood of Quebec City, the capital of the province of Quebec in Canada. Comprising the Upper Town and Lower Town, the area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Administratively, Old Quebec is part of the Vieux-Quebec-Cap-Blanc-colline Parlementaire district in the borough of La Cite-Limoilou.
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5Old City of Safranbolu
Safranbolu is a town and district of Karabuk Province in the Black Sea region of Turkey. It is about 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Ankara and about 100 km south of the Black Sea coast, or more precisely about 9 km north of the city of Karabuk.
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10Old Rauma
Old Rauma is the wooden city centre of the town of Rauma, Finland. It is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
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10Old Riga (Vecriga)
Vecriga (Old Riga) is the historical center of Riga, Latvia, located on the east side of Daugava River. Vecriga is famous for its old churches and cathedrals, such as Riga Cathedral and St. Peter's church.
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10Old Town of Bamberg
Bamberg is a town in Bavaria, Germany, located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. Its historic city center is a listed UNESCO world heritage site.
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3Old Town of Bardejov
Bardejov is a town in North-Eastern Slovakia. It is situated in the Saris region on a floodplain terrace of the Topla River, in the hills of the Beskyd Mountains. It exhibits numerous cultural monuments in its completely intact medieval town center.
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10Old Town of Corfu
The Old Town of Corfu, on the Island of Corfu off the western coasts of Albania and Greece, is located in a strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea, and has its roots in the 8th century BC.
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8Old Town of Goslar (Historical centre of Goslar)
The old town of Goslar, which is still largely surrounded by former defensives and green spaces, is one of the most important closed-preserved historical cities in the world.
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10Old Town of Hoi An
In 1999, the old town was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO as a well-preserved example of a south-east Asian trading port of the 15th to 19th centuries, with buildings that display a unique blend of local and foreign influences.
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10Old Town of Krakow
Krakow Old Town is the historic central district of Krakow, Poland. It is one of the most famous old districts in Poland today and was the center of Poland's political life from 1038 until King Sigismund III Vasa relocated his court to Warsaw in 1596.
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10Old Town of Lijiang
The Old Town of Lijiang is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Lijiang City, Yunnan, China. The town has a history going back more than 1,000 years and was once a confluence for trade along the "Old Tea Horse Caravan Trail".
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10Old Town of Lubeck
Lubeck is a city in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. On the river Trave, it was the leading city of the Hanseatic League and because of its extensive Brick Gothic architecture is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
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10Old Town of Nesebar
Nesebar is an ancient town and one of the major seaside resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, located in Burgas Province. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Nesebar Municipality. Often referred to as the "Pearl of the Black Sea", Nesebar is a rich city-museum defined by more than three millennia of ever-changing history.
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10Old Town of Prague
The Old Town of Prague is a medieval settlement of Prague, Czech Republic. It was separated from the outside by a semi-circular moat and wall, connected to the Vltava river at both of its ends. The moat is now covered up by the streets (from north to south-west) Revolucni, Na Prikope, and Narodni - which remain the official boundary of the cadastral community of Old Town. It is now part of Prague 1.
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10Old Town of Regensburg
Regensburg owns the largest medieval old town north of the Alps with nearly 1,500 listed buildings and a picturesque cityscape. Its most famous sights are located mainly in the Old Town.
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9Old Town of Stralsund
Stralsund was founded in 1234 and was one of the most prospering members of the medieval Hanseatic League. Since 2002, Stralsund's old town with its rich heritage is honored as a UNESCO World Heritage, along with Wismar in Mecklenburg.
