But which cities in Europe are the most written about in literature?
The printing experts at Aura Print combed through the vast expanse of the Google Books corpus (a repository boasting 25 million books) to identify the cumulative mentions of 31 prominent European cities across books spanning from 1920 to 2019.
20 most popular European cities in books revealed
| Rank | European City | Most popular decade | Total occurrences in books (1920-2019) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | London | 1960s | 286,675,501 |
| 2 | Paris | 1920s | 95,290,475 |
| 3 | Rome | 1920s | 48,840,949 |
| 4 | Berlin | 1940s | 37,079,709 |
| 5 | Moscow | 1980s | 31,405,361 |
| 6 | Florence | 1920s | 19,414,470 |
| 7 | Vienna | 1980s | 18,995,437 |
| 8 | Athens | 1960s | 15,118,606 |
| 9 | Dublin | 1920s | 15,021,998 |
| 10 | Amsterdam | 1990s | 12,868,807 |
| 11 | Brussels | 1990s | 10,949,717 |
| 12 | Venice | 1920s | 10,237,695 |
| 13 | Madrid | 1990s | 9,883,636 |
| 14 | Stockholm | 1980s | 8,813,100 |
| 15 | Warsaw | 1980s | 8,054,316 |
| 16 | Munich | 1990s | 8,025,343 |
| 17 | Milan | 1960s | 7,917,978 |
| 18 | Copenhagen | 1950s | 7,317,785 |
| 19 | Prague | 1960s | 6,702,244 |
| 20 | Porto | 1920s | 6,604,087 |
For the complete data of all 31 European cities analysed, please click here.
Beating all its European counterparts by a landslide, London snags top spot on the list to be crowned Europe’s most popular city in literature. Being featured an astonishing 286,675,501 times, this is nearly three times more than all other cities analysed. Dubbed by Charles Dickens as the ‘magic lantern’ that fired his creativity, the British capital has played host to a multitude of novels over the last century.
All Inclusive
Luksusowy kwartalnik turystyczno-podróżniczy. Od 2004 roku opisujemy miejsca, do których warto lecieć dłużej niż na weekend, i ludzi, którzy je prowadzą.
