Rotterdam, Netherlands

Rotterdam sits on the Nieuwe Maas with roughly 660,000 residents, making it the second-largest city in the Netherlands and the operator of the largest port in Europe by cargo tonnage until 2004. German bombing in 1940 destroyed almost the entire medieval centre, clearing ground for a rebuilt skyline anchored by Piet Blom's tilted cube houses from 1984. The 1998 Erasmus Bridge, nicknamed the Swan, rises on a 139-metre pylon to link the north and south banks. Inside the 2014 Markthal, a 40-metre glass horseshoe, hangs Arno Coenen's record-holding indoor artwork, while the 1920 Van Nelle factory keeps its UNESCO-listed Modernist lines nearby.