Gotha, Germany

Gotha is a town of roughly 45,000 residents at the north edge of the Thuringian Forest in central Germany, first documented in 775. The 1640 Friedenstein Palace, a 250-room Baroque residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Gotha, houses the Ekhof-Theater, a 1685 stage that ranks among the oldest surviving 17th-century baroque theatres in Europe. The 1640 Perthes Forum archives 1.2 million maps, and the Gothaer Toto lottery, founded in 1820, runs today as the world's second-oldest continuous lottery. The Almanach de Gotha, published from 1763 to 1944, set the standard reference for European nobility.