Vienna

Suleyman the Magnificent headed a large Ottoman army that arrived at the Gates of Vienna in 1529, and the route they took, taking 141 days, can be retraced in the Sultans Trail. This 2,200km long-distance path starts at the tomb of the Sultan behind the Süleymaniye mosque in Istanbul and ends at St Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna, which has the third largest bell in Europe, the Pummerin, cast out of 208 captured Ottoman cannon from a later encounter, in 1683. Prince Eugene of Savoy, who played a crucial role in the later Ottoman defeat, built the Belvedere, Vienna’s beautiful Palace, subsequently occupied by the kaisers, which now has a wonderful art gallery with a large number of works by Gustav Klimt.