Katowice, Poland

Katowice sits in southern Poland as the core of the Silesian metropolitan area, home to roughly 2 million people, with around 290,000 residents in the city itself. The 1971 Spodek arena, designed by Maciej Gintowt, spans 115 metres as a flying-saucer concrete shell that hosts concerts and sporting events. The Neo-Gothic train station, completed in 1908, ranks among the largest railway stations in Poland. In 2014 the NOSPR concert hall opened with acoustics rated among the world's top five, and the Nikiszowiec mining district, built between 1908 and 1919 by the Zillmann brothers, joined the tentative UNESCO list in 2015.