Perched above the southern Polish city of Krakow, Wawel was home to the country’s kings for centuries. Poland’s Wawel Royal Castle has come fifth on a list of Europe’s most popular castles and palaces, ahead of Spain’s Alhambra and the Tower of London, according to a new ranking. The ranking was compiled by travel company TUI Musement using the number of Google reviews each site had received by July 2026. Wawel had more than 160,000. “Wawel Castle remains one of Europe’s great cultural draws,” TUI Musement said. Perched above the southern Polish city of Krakow, Wawel was home to the country’s kings for centuries. Polish monarchs were crowned in the cathedral beside the castle, and the hill remains one of the country’s most important historic sites. Malbork Castle also makes the list A second Polish landmark, Malbork Castle, came 19th. The vast brick fortress in northern Poland was built by the Teutonic Order, a medieval religious military order that established a state along the Baltic coast. Malbork became a center of the order’s power and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Prague Castle topped the ranking with more than 199,000 reviews, Buckingham Palace in London came second, followed by Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna and the Palace of Versailles in France. The Alhambra in Granada, southern Spain, was sixth, while the Tower of London, one of the UK’s best-known historic landmarks, came eighth. Spain had more entries than any other country, with six sites in the top 30.
