# What is the worst looking capital city in Western Europe? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 22, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353 "2016-12-22T11:04:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![femmejean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/0ea827/32.png) [@femmejean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femmejean)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/1 "2016-12-22T11:04:40Z")
If we take the definition of Western Europe to be the following countries [here](https://www.google.ie/search?q=western+europe+region+map&biw=1366&bih=659&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNo9WL0YfRAhXJWxoKHYoZA7YQ_AUIBSgA&dpr=1). Having traveled to a few, I would have to say Dublin in the Republic of Ireland is the least appealing. The nature and forestry is extremely beautiful (Lahinch Beach, Cliffs of Moher, The Burren) in Ireland which is mainly in the West and few cities like Kilkenny are great,but my God…Dublin IMHO looks pretty shit for a capital city. Even a radio talk-show presenter in Dublin, Niall Boylan said that it was a ‘kip’ (basically a town with terrible aesthetics and an highly untolerable amount of deliquency). Compared to places like Lisbon, Madrid, Zurich, etc. Even tiny towns in many Western European countries like Seville, Nice, Faro **far** outweigh Dublin. But do you have any different opinions? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/2 "2016-12-22T11:07:44Z")
Opinions on beauty no, although I’m wondering what you’d think about much of Madrid; mainly a warning: don’t let someone from Seville hear you calling their city a “tiny town”… ---
**Author:** ![Santelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Santelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santelia)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/3 "2016-12-22T11:16:13Z")
I vote Brussels. Belgium has some wonderful cities, the capital not among them. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/4 "2016-12-22T12:23:16Z")
I’ll have to concur that Dublin, Ireland was the dullest of all Euro capitals I’ve actual visited. If regional capitals count, there’s also Glasgow, Scotland which was quite dreary. Brussels, Belgium wasn’t too bad – just very modern and generic. Among capitals that I’ve only seen through pictures & videos, I’ll have to say that Moscow, Russia – aside from Red Square – looks surprisingly ugly and depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/5 "2016-12-22T13:14:45Z")
Granted it was a decade ago, but the centre of Brussels was dirty and nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/6 "2016-12-22T13:19:42Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > If regional capitals count, there’s also Glasgow, Scotland which was quite dreary. Glasgow isn’t the regional capital, Edinburgh is (and it’s pretty good looking 🙂 ) I agree with everyone who said Dublin and Brussels, though. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/7 "2016-12-22T13:32:10Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Glasgow isn’t the regional capital, Edinburgh is (and it’s pretty good looking 🙂 ) I think most Scots would take issue with Scotland being referred to as a mere “region”. Scotland is a country, and Edinburgh its national capital. > [@femmejean](#): > > Compared to places like Lisbon, Madrid, Zurich, etc. Just to be clear, Zürich hasn’t been the capital of Switzerland for almost 180 years now. (Though it is presently the capital of the Canton of Zürich.) ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/8 "2016-12-22T13:38:58Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Granted it was a decade ago, but the centre of Brussels was dirty and nasty. I was there just last year, and while the Grand-Place is nice, yeah, a lot of the rest is fairly scuzzy, unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/9 "2016-12-22T13:53:37Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Scotland is a country, and Edinburgh its national capital. D’oh!! :smack: Yes, Edinburgh was indeed beautiful. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/10 "2016-12-22T14:08:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Opinions on beauty no, although I’m wondering what you’d think about much of Madrid; mainly a warning: don’t let someone from Seville hear you calling their city a “tiny town”… [Seville](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePmnGqpg9tM) 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/11 "2016-12-22T15:39:53Z")
Brussels was going to be my vote too. As another poster said, concrete and generic. I don’t remember it being dirty as **Quartz** said, but I do remember seeing wide swathes of the city from the train and thinking about how generic and semi-industrial it all looked. ---
**Author:** ![Fuji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Fuji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuji)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/12 "2016-12-22T16:08:28Z")
> [@femmejean](#): > > Even a radio talk-show presenter in Dublin, Niall Boylan said that it was a ‘kip’ (basically a town with terrible aesthetics and an highly untolerable amount of deliquency). Boylan is spot on. Dublin _is_ a kip. Grimy, gray, and full of unsociable types. I’ve been to all the capital cities in W. Europe except Madrid, so this isn’t just a Cork-v-Dublin thing ;). I also don’t see what’s so bad about Brussels. The nicest parts of it are much nicer than the choicest parts of Dublin. And the food is _much_ better there, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/13 "2016-12-22T16:43:02Z")
I’ve never been to Seville, but I understand it’s a lousy place to get a haircut. ---
**Author:** ![Dickerman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8baadc/32.png) [@Dickerman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dickerman)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/14 "2016-12-22T17:28:40Z")
> [@Doctor\_Jackson](#): > > I’ve never been to Seville, but I understand it’s a lousy place to get a haircut. That was years ago. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/15 "2016-12-22T17:55:46Z")
London. It looks like a London-themed amusement park. And yes, I’m certain it has _everything_ to do with the gigantic Ferris wheel, but all of the unconventionally shaped skyscrapers aren’t reducing that feeling any. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/16 "2016-12-22T18:16:39Z")
The only ones I’ve been to are London and Madrid and I’d give it to Madrid, perhaps because I stayed far away from the Ferris wheel (not to mention the City so I also missed the postmodernist architecture.) The only ugly-ish building I saw was the “secret” government building at Vauxhall Bridge, and that was only ugly in retrospect since it was passably good-looking when I thought it was a new condo, but thought that the government should have had more taste when I learned what was in it. The Paseo Del Prado in Madrid _is_ more quaintly beautiful than most of London but Madrid loses points for having much more graffiti. ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/17 "2016-12-23T14:29:16Z")
I’ve lived in Brussels for almost a quarter of a century and it still has to grow on me. I wouldn’t say it’s actively ugly but it certainly is nondescript and soulless. A lot of its character, or lack thereof, is due to the frantic urban development of the 1960s, when old buildings were quickly destroyed or left to rot to make room for offices. There’s even a word for it: [Brusselisation](https://www.wm-urban-habitat.org/eng/brusselisation/). But dirty ? No, it isn’t, really. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/18 "2016-12-23T14:41:57Z")
Do former capitals count? I would like to nominate Rio de Janeiro which was formally the capital of Portugal. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/19 "2016-12-23T15:59:11Z")
Having been to pretty much every European capital, I’d have to agree with Brussels for western Europe. I also lived on the outskirts of the city for a couple of years. Good food, horrible traffic, and a lot of concrete. But like most cities, you have to pick your spots. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353/20 "2016-12-23T16:05:42Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Do former capitals count? I would like to nominate Rio de Janeiro which was formally the capital of Portugal. But would that make it “in” Western Europe? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-worst-looking-capital-city-in-western-europe/775353.md?page=2)