The

of urban planning in Europe is the history of the cities of that continent, their beginnings and their development. In Europe, the first important agglomerations developed in ancient times, around the Mediterranean Sea. The Roman Empire, starting from its capital, Rome, which is the first population that can be considered a large city, created an urban culture in its domains, among which was part of Europe (from the Mediterranean Sea on all its banks, reaching Great Britain).[1]​.

During the century, the continent experiences the most extreme contrasts in the development of its cities, ranging from the planned devastation of several of them (mainly in Germany), during the Second World War, the growth due to rural exodus in Spain, and the dense growth of large cities and the expansion of their limits, generally at the expense of smaller nearby populations. The process of suburbanization was accompanied by the loss of population in the central cities, a phenomenon that has stopped since the century with the revitalization of the cities, which has led to a new demographic boom in them, as is the case of Paris, London, Madrid or Vienna.

While at the beginning of the century the largest agglomerations in the world were European cities, since of the 11 cities with more than a million inhabitants, 7 were in Europe, currently none of them appear in the list of the top 10 in the world and only the metropolitan areas of London, Paris, Moscow and the Ruhr Region exceed 10 million inhabitants. Europe is the most urbanized continent, with a percentage of urban population greater than 70%.[2]​.

The majority of citizens of the European Union (EU) live in urban areas.[3]​.

In the Middle Ages of classical antiquity, only Constantinople would maintain its importance, which remained the capital of the Byzantine Empire, while Rome, as well as other towns, was in sharp decline. Thus, the largest cities were located in the south of Europe, while the center and north lived under an agrarian and feudal society.

In the Late Middle Ages, cities flourished again in the rest of the continent thanks to the improvement in living conditions that promoted industry, fairs, business and, therefore, commerce. Thus, Medina del Campo, Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Bruges, Ypres, Brussels, Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence, Cologne "Cologne (Germany)") and Hamburg stand out for their importance. Other cities such as Paris, London and Vienna, combined with their commercial prosperity a growing political importance by becoming the national capitals of powerful states.