Brandenburg an der Havel, Germany: brick-Gothic cradle of the Mark on the water

The state of Brandenburg, and indeed the realm of Prussia, took their name from this town on the River Havel. Older than nearby Berlin, Brandenburg an der Havel was the capital of the medieval Margraviate of Brandenburg until Berlin replaced it in 1417, and its cathedral is still called the "cradle of the Mark". A city of around 72,000 people about 60 kilometres west of Berlin and 40 kilometres from Potsdam, it spreads across islands and channels of the Havel - water covers nearly a fifth of its area - and grew from three separate medieval centres: the Cathedral Island, the Old Town and the New Town.

On the Cathedral Island stands the Dom of St. Peter and St. Paul, begun in 1165 and completed in Gothic brick over the following centuries, its treasures including a painted "Coloured Chapel" and a celebrated Baroque organ of 1725. Across the water, St. Catherine's Church ranks among the finest works of north German brick Gothic.

Three towns and a knight named Roland

The Old Town Hall, a late-Gothic brick building with stepped gables, is guarded by a sandstone statue of the knight Roland, raised in 1474 as a symbol of civic independence. Stretches of the medieval wall survive with four watchtowers, and the three historic cores - long governed separately until they were united in 1715 - give the city an unusual richness of churches, gates and gabled houses.

A city in the river

Water defines Brandenburg as much as brick: the Havel widens into lakes around the town, a gateway to one of Europe's largest connected inland waterways for boating and cycling. The town also remembers a grim modern chapter, for the Nazis ran one of their first euthanasia killing centres here, now marked by a memorial. On a lighter note, the comedian Loriot, born here in 1923, is honoured with a playful trail of his "forest gnome" sculptures hidden through the streets.