Warsaw among Europe's literary elite! Ahead of Milan and Prague

We used to travel where the sun shone – now we travel where the action of our favorite books takes place. This literary trend has also reached Poland! The latest ranking reveals that Warsaw is one of the most frequently described cities in Europe, with over 8 million mentions in books.

After " One Day ," the Greek islands began bursting at the seams with Emma and Dex fans, and after " The White Lotus," luxury resorts in Sicily and Thailand are under siege. Scenes from Netflix and HBO are increasingly being replaced by real-life views outside hotel windows. This trend even has a name— set-jetting —and, according to Expedia forecasts, it will be one of the strongest travel trends of 2026. But it's not just TV series and movies that define travel these days. Bookworms are seeking inspiration in… books , and literary cities are becoming the star of city breaks.

Against this background, the latest analysis prepared by Aura Print specialists looks particularly interesting. They checked which European cities were most frequently mentioned in books between 1920 and 2019. And here we have some good news: Warsaw took 14th place , with an impressive number of 8,054,316 literary mentions.

Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw License: Pavel Keyzik / Unsplash

Before we get to the podium, it's worth taking a look behind the scenes of the study. Experts analyzed over 25 million publications from the Google Books archive using the Google Ngram Viewer tool. For each of the 30 largest European cities, they examined how often their names appeared in books in each decade from 1920 to 2019 .

London tops the list, with a staggering 286,675,501 mentions . It was here that Dickens led his characters through dark alleys, and Sherlock Holmes tracked down crimes along the Thames. From " A Tale of Two Cities ," through Sherlock's adventures, to contemporary novels like " The House by the Thames," the British capital remains a literary evergreen.

View of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, London, UK. License: Marcin Nowak / Unsplash

Paris comes in second with 95,290,475 mentions and an endless list of love stories. Paris appears in Hemingway's " A Moveable Feast " and books like " Les Misérables " and " The Bookshop in Paris."

Rome rounds out the podium with 48,840,949 mentions . The Eternal City has long inspired authors, as seen in " Eat, Pray, Love " and " Conclave ."

Against this backdrop, Warsaw performs surprisingly well: 14th in Europe and with over 8 million mentions in literature . This result puts the Polish capital in line with cities like Stockholm , Milan, and Copenhagen .

For writers, Warsaw is a city of contrasts and memory – on the one hand, wartime ruins and the uprising, on the other, reconstruction, modernist skyscrapers, and dynamic cultural life. It's no coincidence that this is the setting for " The Pianist ," as well as contemporary tales of loss and finding one's place on the map, such as " From Warsaw with Love ."

Knowing that Warsaw belongs to the literary elite of Europe may be the best excuse to look at the city with fresh eyes - as a hero whose story we know, but who is still worth getting to know anew.

1. London - 286,675,501 mentions
2. Paris - 95,290,475 mentions
3. Rome - 48,840,949 mentions
4. Berlin - 37,079,709 mentions
5. Florence - 19,414,470 mentions
6. Vienna - 18,995,437 mentions
7. Athens - 15,118,606 mentions
8. Dublin - 15,021,998 mentions
9. Amsterdam - 12,868,807 mentions
10. Brussels - 10,949,717 mentions
11. Venice - 10,237,695 mentions
12. Madrid - 9,883,636 mentions
13. Stockholm - 8,813,100 mentions
14. Warsaw - 8,054,316 mentions
15. Munich - 8,025,343 mentions