Colour cities
174 cities and regions known for a colour: blue Jodhpur, pink Jaipur, red Marrakech, white Santorini. And 321 more places that gave a colour its name or its material.
🇮🇳 Birthplace of Krishna, home of HoliMathuraKrishna's birthplace celebrates Holi for more than a week, with processions, music and coloured powder.
🇮🇳 The yellow French quarterPondicherryThe old French quarter by the sea is painted mustard yellow with white trim, shaded by bougainvillea.
🇮🇳 Yellow taxis, red and white sarisKolkataYellow Ambassador taxis, red-brick colonial offices and white saris with red borders mark Bengal's capital.
🇮🇳 City of the kaali-peeliMumbaiBlack-and-yellow taxis, known as kaali-peeli, are the moving colour of India's largest city.
🇮🇳 Goa's Latin QuarterFontainhasA small quarter of Panaji where Portuguese-era houses are painted yellow, blue and red with white trim.🇻🇳 The yellow townHoi AnAn old trading port in central Vietnam whose shophouses are washed in yellow and hung with silk lanterns.
🇹🇷 The saffron townSafranboluAn Ottoman town named after saffron, with white timber-framed houses under red tiled roofs.
🇸🇳 Island town of ochre balconiesSaint-LouisA colonial island town at the mouth of the Senegal river, with ochre houses and brightly painted fishing boats.
🇪🇸 White walls and albero yellowSevilleWhitewashed houses edged in golden yellow, bitter orange trees along the streets and tiled squares.
🇵🇹 Painted boats on the canalsAveiroA lagoon town of canals, where high-prowed boats carry bright hand-painted panels, and salt is piled in white heaps.
🇫🇷 The lemon townMentonThe last French town before Italy, with an old quarter in ochre and yellow and a famous lemon festival.
🇩🇰 Copenhagen's coloured quayNyhavnA 17th-century canal lined with tall townhouses in yellow, red, orange and blue, and old wooden ships.
🇸🇪 Stockholm's ochre old townGamla StanThe medieval island at the centre of Stockholm, with tall narrow houses in yellow ochre, orange and deep red.
🇮🇪 Ireland's painted harbour townKinsaleA harbour town in County Cork whose narrow streets are lined with shops painted in strong, cheerful colours.
🇵🇱 Painted market squareWrocławOne of Europe's largest market squares, ringed by tall gabled townhouses each in a different colour.
🇷🇴 Pastel citadel of TransylvaniaSighișoaraA small walled hill town of cobbled lanes and houses in ochre, green, pink and blue.
🇺🇸 City of yellow cabsNew YorkYellow taxis thread streets of brown stone, grey steel and glass; a green statue stands in the harbour.
🇲🇽 The Yellow CityIzamalA town in Yucatán where the convent, the arcades and nearly every house are painted the same egg-yolk yellow.
🇲🇽 Walled city of pastel streetsCampecheA fortified port on the Gulf of Mexico with straight streets of low houses in pale, carefully kept colours.
🇬🇹 Yellow arch below the volcanoesAntigua GuatemalaA colonial city of low houses in yellow, red and blue, known for a yellow arch and carpets of dyed sawdust.
🇳🇮 The yellow cathedral cityGranadaA colonial city on Lake Nicaragua, with a yellow-and-white cathedral and streets of brightly painted houses.
🇨🇺 Sugar-town pastelsTrinidadA small Cuban town of cobbled streets and low houses in yellow, blue and pink, built on sugar wealth.
🇨🇼 Dutch gables in Caribbean coloursWillemstadA waterfront of Dutch-style gabled houses painted yellow, pink, blue and green on the island of Curaçao.
🇧🇷 Painted hill town of carnivalOlindaA colonial town on hills above the sea near Recife, with bright house fronts, white churches and palm trees.
🇳🇿 Geothermal coloursRotoruaA New Zealand city of hot springs, where minerals stain pools orange, green and yellow, and carving is painted red.Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mathura In: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Pondicherry In: Karthik Easvur, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kolkata In: Ketanmehta4u, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Mumbai In: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Fontainhas In: iMahesh, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Safranbolu Tr: UÄŸur BaÅŸak, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Saint Louis Sn: Remi Jouan, CC BY 3.0, source
- Seville Es: El-mejor, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Aveiro Pt: Joaomartinho63, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Menton Fr: Jpgross, Public domain, source
- Nyhavn Dk: kallerna, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Gamla Stan Se: Arild VÃ¥gen, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Kinsale Ie: Christopher Michel, CC BY 2.0, source
- Wroclaw Pl: Hrs Poland, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Sighisoara Ro: Bogdan Muraru, CC BY-SA 3.0 ro, source
- New York Us: Z22, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Izamal Mx: Inri, CC0, source
- Campeche Mx: self., CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Antigua Guatemala Gt: Chad Davis, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Granada Ni: Guillaume Baviere, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Trinidad Cu: Dieter Mueller, dino1948, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Willemstad Cw: Coolcaesar, CC BY 4.0, source
- Olinda Br: Valdiney Pimenta, CC BY 2.0, source
- Rotorua Nz: Pseudopanax at en.wikipedia, Public domain, source