Can You Guess the City From Its Street Art? (12 Photos)
By Vidar
12 photos. 12 cities. How many can you place?
Think you recognize that dome? Or the street around that mural? Look beyond the artwork: buildings, balconies, shopfronts and landmarks are all part of the clue. Some cities are easier to spot than others.
Choose one of four cities under each photo. Your first answer counts, then the location and the story behind the artwork appear. Finish all 12 to see your score. These are photos from our archive, so some temporary artworks have since moved or disappeared.
An easy one to start: two painted figures sit below the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral. Which city?
Show answer
London, England, UK 🇬🇧
The dome belongs to St Paul’s Cathedral. Sr. X painted these two figures at Paternoster Square, with support from Global Street Art. Their painted windows sit just above the real pavement: a small street-art surprise beneath a very recognizable landmark.
Two painted children ride a real bicycle in the UNESCO-listed old town on Penang Island. Which Malaysian city?
Show answer
George Town, Penang, Malaysia 🇲🇾
Ernest Zacharevic fixed a real bicycle to this wall on Lebuh Armenian for George Town Festival in 2012. He returned to restore it in September 2024.
A laughing child swings across an 11-story apartment block, in the city where the Wall fell in 1989. Which city?
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Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪
Demut painted the laughing child with WandKonzepte in May 2026, on an 11-story apartment building at the corner of Randowstraße and Vincent-van-Gogh-Straße in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. According to the commissioner, the design draws on elements from Van Gogh’s paintings.
A giant child looks up at a balloon with an atom on it, painted on a nursery in Cuba’s capital. Which city?
Show answer
Havana, Cuba 🇨🇺
Máisel López painted this three-by-four-meter mural in 2024 at the Amiguitos del Átomo nursery in Playa, Havana. It belongs to Los Colosos, the series he began in 2015 to give children a prominent place in the city.
Artwork: Máisel López
A neighborhood staircase turns into a rainbow, in the city that sits on both sides of the Bosphorus. Which city?
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Istanbul, Türkiye 🇹🇷
Retired forestry engineer Hüseyin Çetinel painted the 145 steps between Fındıklı and Cihangir over four days in August 2013, Archnet records. The municipality painted them gray again within days, and rainbow stairs soon appeared elsewhere in Türkiye.
Artwork: Hüseyin Çetinel
The sign says Amsterdam, but that iron tower behind it stands by the Seine. Which city are we really in?
Show answer
Paris, France 🇫🇷
The Eiffel Tower gives it away. Frankey placed this little Donald Duck scene on Avenue de Camoëns in Paris. The sign points your attention toward Amsterdam, but the landmark behind it supplies the answer.
An elderly couple stands four stories tall in the capital of the Australian state of Victoria. Which city?
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Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺
SMUG painted his grandparents on a former power station at the corner of Lonsdale and Spencer streets. CitiPower commissioned the mural in collaboration with Juddy Roller, and it was unveiled in June 2016.
A blue bird spreads across a house in Getsemaní, next to the walled old town on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. Which city?
Show answer
Cartagena, Colombia 🇨🇴
Yurika MDC painted El destello Maria Mulata in 2013 at Plaza de la Trinidad in Getsemaní. The artist’s own account says it grew from a neighborhood children’s story: colorful birds saved a burning village, and the smoke turned them black. María mulata is Cartagena’s local name for the great-tailed grackle.
A giant breaks through the lawn by the Chain Bridge. Which Danube capital?
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Budapest, Hungary 🇭🇺
Ervin Hervé-Lóránth’s Ripped Up (Feltépve) pushed through the lawn at Széchenyi István Square in 2014. It was a temporary polystyrene installation, made with Gallery Out of Home for Art Market Budapest.
Kermit turns graffiti writer on a Brooklyn street corner. Which US city?
Show answer
Brooklyn, New York City, USA 🇺🇸
JAMIE HEF painted Kermit as a graffiti artist at Wilson and Myrtle Avenues in Brooklyn, with spray cans floating around him and a blue milk crate behind.
A raccoon made of trash in Belém, home of the famous custard tarts and a riverside tower. Which city?
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Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹
Bordalo II built the raccoon across the stepped walls behind Centro Cultural de Belém for his 2015 solo show Pânico, Drama, Terror. When the building was marked for demolition in 2025, he adapted and reinstalled it in Chelas as Re-Raccoon.
Last one: a street painted as sand dunes outside the Museum of Fine Arts, in Canada’s largest French-speaking city. Which Canadian city?
Show answer
Montréal, Canada 🇨🇦
NÓS Architectes made Moving Dunes with MU for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2018. The painted bands made the flat street on Avenue du Musée look like sand dunes, and the mirrored spheres curved the lines further. It stayed in place until October 29, 2018.
Your score
Which city gave itself away?
Tell us your score and which detail helped you most. Was it the artwork, the architecture—or a place you’ve walked past yourself?
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