Which City Is Which In Europe? Quiz

Answer: Livorno

Legnano was the site, where the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa was defeated in 1176 by the Milanese. Lagosanto is a village near Ravenna. And Lago Verde is in Brazil, and has nothing to do with Italy. Hence!

Answer: Mainz

Malaga is in the south of Spain. Mannheim is geographically close to Mainz, but that's all there is to it. And Munich... between brackets, do you know the German name of Munich? Then look it up, in an encyclopedia of whatever. Could come in handy with other quizzes of this kind!

Answer: Geneva

Gdynia is a Polish port, quite close to Gdansk (former Danzig. Oh yes, I could have made a question about that.) Genoa is the English word for the great port of Genova. And that Hódmez-thing, in which country could it be found? No, not in Iceland. In Hungary.

Answer: Dubrovnik (Croatia)

Of course, those Italians of centuries ago were the Venetians, who gave all coastal settlements an Italian name. And, having a bad character, I tried to lure you on a false path, by inserting the name of this Swiss township, speculating, that you knew, that Italian is the third language of the Helvetic Confederation.
By the way, what is the fourth official language of Switzerland? If you know, make use of it in a quiz of yours!

Answer: Cheb

Cheb is a Czech bordertown, east of Northern Bavaria. Yes, a tough question, if you are not from Sudeten German descent!
Igarka is a Russian township, Jehonville is in Belgium, and Aigle is somewhere in Switzerland.

Answer: Aachen

Yes, Aachen it was, the city, so near the Belgian and Dutch borders, the city of Charlemagne. Of course I tried to deceive you with the Roman-Catholic connotation of Aquino, in Italy, in spite of the fact that I am an Unbelieving Thomas. As for Alicante, it is in southern Spain (and in the times of Charlemagne, firmly in the hands of the Muslims.)

Answer: Bozen

After the First World War Italy, having fought on the side of the Allies, was able to get a chunk out of the disintegrating Habsburg Empire of Austria-Hungary. This portion was German-speaking Southern Tirol, and after more than a half-century the region got a semi-autonomous status, which at the present is, in my view, working rather satisfactorily. The two most important towns in South-Tirol are Merano (Meran) and Bolzano (Bozen).

Answer: Marseille (France)

Yes, Marseille was an ancient Greek colony. So was Messina on Sicily, but was then called Messana, or Zancle. Manisa is a Turkish town, but just near the Aegean coast, so it also might have been a Greek colony, like neighbouring Smyrna, now known by its Turkish name Izmir.
Messinía is a region in the Peloponnesos in Greece.

Answer: Lille (France)

Yes, Lille, great city in an industrial region, in the North-western part of France, near Belgium. That also is the reason for this Dutch (or, if you prefer: Flemish) name; in the Middle Ages the population still spoke for the major part Flemish, but then already the linguistic frontier began to shift to the north, to be finally stabilized only in the 20th century along the French-Belgian border.
Mons in Belgium, south of Brussels, is called "Bergen" in Flemish.
Regensburg is a town in Bavaria in Germany. And Ross still is Ross.

Answer: Antwerp

The inhabitants of this city will have not much trouble recognizing the Anglo-Saxon names given their cherished "Antwerpen". Antwerp was much contested in the rising of the Netherlands at the end of the 16th century. Mutinous Spanish soldiers ransacked the city, and after a few years French troops did the same.
As far a I know Antwerp is the only European city, which has four different names in languages using the Latin alphabet: Antwerpen, Antwerp, Amberes and the French "Anvers".

Answer: Ličge

Yes, Ličge, or for the Flemish: Luik. Up to Napoleonic times it was an ecclesiastical state under a Prince-Bishop. There is a nice Gothic palace in the city. In 1830 part of Belgium's once beautiful surroundings on the river Meuse became spoilt by the coal industry and the like.
Lyons is a vast city in southern France, also thriving on industry. There is no German equivalent for its name (derived from the Latin word "Lugdunum", named after the Celtic God Lug.
Lodz, in Poland, was called "Litzmannstadt" by the Germans, and Szeged in Hungary had no German name to my knowledge, but who knows...

Answer: Austerlitz

Austerlitz, one of the most famous battles in history. Here the Emperor Napoleon defeated in 1805 two other Emperors of older standing, the Austrian and the Russian one. At the Weisser Berg (Bila Hora, White Mountain), very near Prague, an army of rebellious Czech Protestant nobleman were defeated in 1620 by the Austrians. It meant the near-destruction of the Czech language for at least 250 years...
And Königgrätz (Hradec Kralové) was in 1866 the scene, where a Prussian army defeated decisively the Austrians.
Pilsen or - nowadays - Plzen is a rather huge city, and the only battle I can associate with it, is a battle with beer bottles.

Answer: Vienna

I don't know if the other cities have particular Czech names. But Vienna at any rate has. No wonder!

What now is Czechia was for about four centuries a part of the Habsburg Empire, and many of the fine buildings in Prague and other cities bear witness to that.

Answer: Regensburg

Yes, and don't ask me why, as Regensburg (in Germany) is far less important than Mainz or Rotterdam or Aachen.
If you have decided for Raciborz (in Poland) I cannot blame you, especially since an older name for that town was "Ratibor".

Answer: Lvov

Lvov, or, in the official language of Ukraine: Lviv. Odessa also is an Ukrainian city, but as far as I know, never had an outlandish name.
Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, but indeed was called by the Germans: Laibach. As for Stalinsk, I am sorry, but nowadays there is hardly any geographical name which still bears the name of the cruelest ruler the Russian Empire ever had.