Near St. Petersburg are numerous tourist and recreational destinations with park and palace complexes of former Russian tsars: Tsarskoye Selo, Peterhof, Pavlovsk, Zelenogorsk, and Gatchina.
Florence officially became a monarchy in 1531, when Emperor Charles and Pope Clement appointed Alessandro de Medici as prince of the Florentine Republic.
The Medici monarchy lasted for over two hundred years. Alessandro's successor, Cosimo I de' Medici, ...
When the Habsburg dynasty took over the reign of Vienna in 1276, it became the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, the seat of the bishopric, and a scientific and cultural center.
During the reign of Rudolf IV the Founder of the Habsburg dynasty, the construction of St. Stephen’s Cathedral (the pride and one of the symbols of the city) began, and a university was established.