Miskolctapolca, Hungary

Due to the closure of its steel factory and other industries, MISKOLC (pronounced "mish-koltz"), 61km northeast of Eger and the third largest city in Hungary, has long suffered from high unemployment and problems with racist attacks on its Roma minority, to which the city council responded at one point by proposing that they all be moved to an outlying housing estate, until dissuaded by a national outcry. However, the city puts a brave face on its woes, at least around the centre, whose oddly appealing main street retains much of its prewar charm, surrounded by relics of the city's Greek and Jewish communities, and nineteenth-century artisans' dwellings with gardens dwarfed by concrete high-rises. Aside from the Queen's Castle and the spa resort of Miskolc-Tapolca, everything of interest is in the city centre.