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There is carpet treading. And then there is historic carpet-treading.
Observing people’s homes is an intriguing and completely legitimate pastime, even if you have no intentions of relocating. But when you get tired of following up your fantasy searches on Rightmove with IRL appointments, you can always take the hobby deeper by visiting a bona fide historic house.
Defined as a home that is old enough, architecturally or nationally noteworthy enough, and well-preserved enough to be of public interest, a historic house tends to offer a little more to its visitors than the average house on the market. The furnishings and relics may charm, the architecture and grounds may be impressive, and additional excursions and presentations may give you the sense of accomplishment that comes with ticking another museum off the list.
But perhaps most striking of all is the atmosphere of walking in the footsteps and laying in the bed (disclaimer: don’t do this) of the great and the good (and the awful). MoverDB.com investigated the most popular houses in Europe and also identified some hidden gems that may not receive many visitors but are highly rated.
The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam (Netherlands) is the most-visited historic house in Europe, with 63,362 reviews on TripAdvisor.
The highest-rated hidden gem in the United Kingdom is Blairquhan Castle in Ayrshire (Scotland), with 97.4% five-star reviews.
The most-visited historic house in the United Kingdom is Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh (Scotland), with 52,443 reviews.
Outside of the United Kingdom, Skiathitiko Spiti in Skiathos Town, Greece, is the highest-rated hidden gem in Europe, with 96.6% of its reviews boasting five stars.
The Most Visited Historic House in Every European Country
Castles and palaces Lead in many nations, from the 19th-century Schloss Neuschwanstein in Germany to Hungary’s Visegrad Citadel, built between 1245 and 1255 A.D. Over in Finland’s capital city, the Old Market Hall takes the crown, a food market which has served customers since 1889.
The Top 10 Most Visited Historic Houses in Europe
Counting 63,362 reviews on Tripadvisor, Anne Frank’s House in Amsterdam (the Netherlands) is the most visited historic house in Europe. Since 1960, the museum has preserved the hiding place of the celebrated WWII diarist Anne Frank. The Prado National Museum in Madrid ranks next (57,818 reviews), one of Spain’s Largest museums which opened to the public for the first time in 1819.
The Top 10 Most Visited Historic Houses in the United Kingdom
According to National Geographic, Wales alone counts more castles per square mile than any other European country. But which historic houses are the most visited in the United Kingdom? With 52,443 Tripadvisor reviews, the nth-century Edinburgh Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland, claims the crown overall. Royal residences Like Buckingham Palace (29.5k reviews) and Windsor Castle (13.7k reviews) also feature.
The Top Hidden Gem Historic House in Every European Country
In England, visitors Love the 15th-century Clayton Hall Museum in Manchester, a “must-see hidden gem” (according to one reviewer) that boasts its own moat. Though you might think castles are hard to miss, they’re top hidden gems in several countries, like Ireland, Hungary, Lithuania, and Belgium.
The Top 10 Hidden Gem Historic Houses in Europe
Skiathitiko Spiti in Greece is a good option if you wish to visit a historic house but avoid a crowd of tourists, with 147 Tripadvisor reviews, 96.6% of which are five-star. Visitors here can browse an early 20th-century home that now serves as a family-owned museum. Italy claims three other hidden gems.
The Top 10 Hidden Gem Historic Houses in the United Kingdom
Blairquhan Castle in Scotland Leads our ranking top 10 historic house hidden gems of the United Kingdom. Built-in 1824 on the site of centuries-old ruins, this countryside castle counts only 39 reviews on Tripadvisor, most of which (97.4%) are rated five stars. Most top hidden gems can be found in England, but the 17th-century Lissan House estate in Northern Ireland (95 reviews, 82.1% rated ‘excellent’) also ranks.
Methodology
MoverDB.com created a list of 1,563 historic houses from every European country to help people discover the most popular ones and the lesser-known hidden gems. Historic houses encompass a variety of structures, such as castles, palaces, manors, birthplaces of notable individuals, converted museums, and buildings that have been turned into home museums for display purposes.
They examined each of their Tripadvisor review pages using a seed list, paying attention to the number of reviews and the percentage of 5-star reviews.
The MoverDB.com team then calculated the number of reviews as a proxy for ranking the most visited historic houses.
To find the best-hidden gems, they searched for historic houses with at least 25 reviews, but that were still in the bottom third percentile of review counts among all historic houses on their list. This ensured they were only considering attractions with a reasonable representation of visitors. The attractions that receive fewer visitors were ranked based on the percentage of 5-star visitor reviews they received.
Due to uncertainties surrounding the current accessibility of attractions in Ukraine, historic houses from there were skipped from the final analysis.
The data for this study is correct as of May 2023.
