Žilina, Slovakia

Žilina is a city of about 82,000 residents in northwest Slovakia, where the Váh, Kysuca and Rajčanka rivers meet. Its 1599 Mariánske námestie square is lined on all four sides by arcaded burgher houses, and the 13th-century Budatín Castle, a former water fortress, now holds the Považie Museum. The 1310 Church of the Holy Trinity stands beside a Holy Trinity column dated 1730, while the University of Žilina, founded in 1949, serves as the main railway-engineering school in Slovakia. A river-crossed setting and a square that has kept its arcades for over four centuries hint at what waits just beyond the castle gates.