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European Capitals Word Search

A word search dedicated to European capitals, perfect for dreaming of travel while learning geography. Hidden in the grid are eight words to find: Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, Prague and Athens. Each capital carries its own story, culture and language. Print it for free or download it as a PDF: ideal for a geography unit on Europe.

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European Capitals, one by one

Every country has a capital, the city where its government sits and where many visitors arrive first. The eight capitals hidden in this grid are among the best known in Europe, and below is a short note on each one, useful for starting a conversation about travel once the grid is solved.

Paris — The capital of France, the "City of Light", home to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, the world's most visited museum.

London — On the River Thames, famous for Big Ben, red double-decker buses and Buckingham Palace.

Berlin — The capital of Germany, modern and historic, once divided by a wall that has since fallen — a symbol of freedom regained.

Madrid — At the heart of Spain, lively and sunny, with grand squares and world-class museums.

Lisbon — The capital of Portugal, facing the Atlantic, a city of hills, yellow trams and colourful houses.

Vienna — The capital of Austria, the city of music, home to great composers such as Mozart and Beethoven.

Prague — In the Czech Republic, it looks like something out of a fairy tale, with its castle and the Charles Bridge.

Athens — The capital of Greece, one of the oldest cities in the world, birthplace of democracy, home to the Acropolis and the Parthenon.

Capitals with a past

The word “capital” comes from the Latin caput, the head: a capital is the city that leads the country. Most of these eight began as ancient settlements, and their names often come from far away. Paris is named after the Parisii, a Celtic tribe who lived on an island in the Seine; London comes from Londinium, the Roman trading port on the Thames; Vienna from Vindobona, a Roman camp on the Danube; and Athens from the goddess Athena, who, according to myth, won a contest against Poseidon by giving the city an olive tree.

Many capitals hold a record or a surprise. Madrid is the highest capital in the European Union, at more than 600 metres above sea level, and its name goes back to the Arabic fortress of Mayrit. Prague has the oldest astronomical clock still working, built in 1410, and the Czech language gave the world the word “robot”, first used in a play by Karel Čapek written in 1920. Lisbon was largely destroyed by the earthquake of 1 November 1755, and Berlin was split by a wall from 1961 to 1989, twenty-eight years that many people still remember.

Even the famous landmarks hold surprises. The Eiffel Tower was built for the 1889 World's Fair and was meant to stand for only twenty years, while “Big Ben” is not the name of London's clock tower but of the great bell inside it. The tower itself has been called the Elizabeth Tower since 2012.

Four activities for a grand tour

Capitals are easier to remember when children can place them on a map and link them to something concrete. Here are a few ideas:

  • A trip from Lisbon to Athens. On a blank map of Europe, children mark the eight capitals with stickers and trace a route that visits them all, counting how many countries they cross on the way.
  • Capital and river. With an atlas, match the cities to their rivers: Paris on the Seine, London on the Thames, Vienna on the Danube, Prague on the Vltava, Lisbon on the Tagus, Berlin on the Spree and Madrid on the little Manzanares. Athens has no important river; the city grew around the Acropolis.
  • The right flag. Each child draws and colours the flags of three countries and links each one to its capital, for example the blue, white and red tricolour of France with Paris.
  • A postcard from the capital. Choose a city and write a three-sentence postcard as if you were there: what you can see, what you eat and what the weather is like.

How this grid is built

Eight capitals hide in 12×12 squares: one horizontal, two vertical and five diagonal. Seven of the eight words have six letters, and only PARIS, with five letters, is shorter. BERLIN is the only diagonal that slopes down to the right, while MADRID, LISBON, VIENNA and ATHENS slope down to the left, and ATHENS and MADRID run side by side, one row apart. LONDON and VIENNA cross on the letter N in row 6, the only crossing in the grid. PRAGUE runs along the bottom row, and every row and every column holds at least one word.

More capitals to visit

To add more cities, open the generator with the Travel theme, which already includes plane, train, suitcase, passport, hotel, beach, map, ticket, holiday and souvenir, and type in more capitals: Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Budapest, Copenhagen, Stockholm or Dublin. A long name such as Copenhagen, ten letters, leaves more room for diagonals in the 13×13 grid.

Also in Italian

In Italian the capitals are Parigi, Londra, Berlino, Madrid, Lisbona, Vienna, Praga and Atene, so only Madrid and Vienna are spelled the same in both languages. The Italian version of this puzzle, Crucipuzzle delle Capitali Europee, has five vertical words instead of two, and BERLINO and LISBONA, with seven letters each, are its longest.

More word searches to try

After the grand tour of Europe you can stay on the road, in Italy, at the Games or at the table:

For using word searches in geography lessons and other school subjects, with ready-made ideas for the classroom, read the article School word search puzzles.