The World's Second Cities from the Sky

Top contributor Timelab.pro's won a second annual Drone Video Award for this masterpiece of a drone video from St. Petersburg, Russia.  The video was shot during the long summer nights when the sun barely sets on this city created on the order of Peter the Great over three centuries ago.  Watch it to see some amazing aerial views of many of the city's top sights, including the St. Isaac's Cathedral, the Stock Exchange, the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the Port of St. Petersburg, the Kazan Cathedral, and more.  

Milan is the largest city in northern Italy and the second largest overall after Rome.  It's the capital of Lombardy, a region which is home to about one in six Italians and consistently has been the dynamo of the Italian economy (and one of the most important in the EU).  While Rome is Italy's political and cultural capital, Milan is its business and financial capital.  Dronescapes by Atellani treats us to this stunning aerial overview of Milano, including footage of La Scala di Milano, the Unicredit Tower, Citylife Milano, and more.

The United Arab Emirates is comprised of seven semi-independent emirates, the largest and best known of which is Dubai.  The second largest is Abu Dhabi, which sits to the west of Dubai on the Persian Gulf and which accounts for nearly 90% of the total land area of the UAE.  Contributor Humzz used a drone to create this stunning aerial tour of the Abu Dhabi's namesake capital.  The UAE's "second city", Abu Dhabi has experienced less explosive growth compared to Dubai, yet still boasts an impressive array of its own skyscrapers.   

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain and the capital of Catalonia, the semi-autonomous and culturally distinctive region which covers the country's northeastern corner.  Situated on the Mediterranean Sea, Barcelona is one of the wealthiest and cosmopolitan cities in Europe.  Top contributor iDrone Aerials used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create an amazing aerial portrait of this great city, which was founded by the Romans in the first century BC and hosted the Summer Olympics at the end of the 20th century.     

The port city of Hamburg in northern Germany is one of the keys to the country's export-oriented economy.  The city is home to the largest German seaport and the second largest port in the entire European Union after Rotterdam.  Lying on a river about 110 km (around 70 mi) upstream from the North Sea, the city is the core of a metropolitan area of about 5 million, the second largest in Germany after Berlin.  New Entertainment Pictures created this magnificent drone video of the great city on the River Elbe.

Airuz contributor Luke Maximo Bell is one of the top drone pilots and aerial videographers in South Africa.  In this film, which was chosen as a finalist for the Drone Video of the Week contest in April, 2018, he has put together some of his very best aerial footage of Cape Town, the great city on the cape that separates the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.  The video, which features footage from the city as well as the surrounding mountains, advances the common claim for Cape Town being the world's most beautiful city.  

Explore the great city of Porto, Portugal from above in this excellent video by former DVOW Winner dronesantana007.  The video opens with a beautiful shot of the Ribeira district on the northern (right) bank of the Douro River, gradually revealing the famous Dom Luís I Bridge.  Next stop is the tower of the Clérigos Church, a Baroque masterpiece.  Just before 1:00, you'll see the Porto Cathedral, and at 1:55 there's another great shot of the Ribeira waterfront.  Other highlights include the Porto City Hall, seen just before 5:00.  

For a two and a half minute aerial tour of the great Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, it's tough to beat this drone video by top content creator and drone pilot PaulVlad.  His video brings some of the epic views for which the city is famous, such as the impressive skyline and Copacabana Beach, the Christ the Redeemer statue, and more.  Some of the best footage in the video is aerial footage of a hang glider working its way down the steep hills which surround Brazil's second largest city and erswhile capital.  

Krakow is Poland's "second city" after Warsaw.  It's situated in southern Poland, at the base of the Carpathian Mountains.  Having survived World War II with less physical damage than Warsaw, it is arguably the most important cultural and historical city in the country.  AirVuz star contributor iDrone Aerials used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to take us on an incredible aerial tour of this ancient city.  The Old Town of Krakow, shown in the video, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage cultural site.  

The Malaysian state of Penang, which lies in the northwest part of Peninsular Malaysia (the portion of the country situated on the Malay Peninsula), is comprised of Penang Island as well as a portion which sits on the Malay Peninsula itself.  Penang Island is home to the great city of George Town, Malaysia's second largest, which was one of the first British settlements in Southeast Asia.  Contributor Dronedoodle uses a drone to give us an epic tour of Penang Island and its port city.  

Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia (after the capital city, Bogota), and the capital of the Antioquia region which occupies a northern section of the country.  Like most South American cities, Medellin was founded in the 16th century by Spanish conquerors.  It sits atop numerous lists of the best cities in South America.  In this video, contributor Unraveled Studios was able to fly a drone over Medellin during the approach of a major thunderstorm over the surrounding mountains. 

Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam as well as its second-largest city.  Hanoi was the largest city of North Vietnam prior to unification with the South after the North's victory in the Vietnam War in 1975.  Over the past couple of decades, Hanoi has participated in Vietnam's economic boom and has developed an impressive skyline of its own.  Contributor and drone pilot Mitchell Millennial created this epic drone video of Hanoi at sunset, including (at the :25 mark) a great shot of the Lotte Center, the city's second-tallest building.    

Multiple Drone Video of the Week Winner FrameworkFilms brings us this epic aerial timelapse from the city of Los Angeles, California.  The video opens with a shot looking north towards downtown from the southwest via the 110 freeway.  At about the :24 mark, you'll see the pier and amusement park in Santa Monica, just west of LA.  At around the one minute mark, there's a great shot looking south towards downtown from Dodger Stadium, and starting at the 1:15 mark you'll fly over some of the tallest skyscrapers in downtown LA.  

Turkey's capital Ankara is a fascinating city.  Its population during the height of Roman power was about 200,000, roughly 3x what it was in the 19th century.  After World War I, it became the base of Turkish resistance to allied plans to completely dismember the Ottoman Empire, and became the capital when the Republic of Turkey was formed in 1923.   Its population is now over 5 million, and it's the country's second largest city.  Check out the city's  modern skyline in this drone video from Denizvisual.  

Codoba is the second most populous city in the South American nation of Argentina, and the capital of the province bearing the same name.  It sits in the interior of the country, northwest of the capital city Buenos Aires, in the foothills of the Sierra Chica Mountains.  In this video, top content creator and pilot Justin Poore uses a drone to give us a bird's eye view of this amazing city, which was founded by the Spanish in the 16th century and is considered a major cultural center for all of South America.  

In this video, contributor and drone pilot Marc Piramide takes us on an aerial tour of the second largest city in the Philippines.  Cebu City, on the island of Cebu, is the center of a metropolitan area of about 3 million as of 2018, making it the second largest urban area in the Philippines.  It is the dominant city of the Visayan Islands, as the central part of the country known.  Known as the oldest city in the Philippines, the port of Cebu City is one of the country's most important, particularly for domestic trade. 

AirVuz contributor Albion Drones brings us this excellent aerial tour of the city of Birmingham, England.  Birmingham is the largest city in the English Midlands region of the United Kingdom, and the second-largest city of the UK after London.  A small market town for much of its history, Birmingham came into its own during the Industrial Revolution, in which it became one of the world's great centers of manufacturing.  The video was filmed at sunrise flying from Centenary Square, in the heart of the city.  

Check out this fantastic 60 second drone video of the great French city of Marseille, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Microscope.  The country's second-largest city after Paris, Marseille is the largest in the southern part of the country and is home to France's largest seaport.  The video features footage of some of the most iconic sites in Marseille: the Catholic basilica Notre-Dame de la Garde, the Palais Longchamp museum complex in the 4th arrondissement, the marina and waterfront, and more.  

Myanmar's second largest city after its capital Yangon is Mandalay, which lies near the geographic center of this large Southeast Asian country.  Mandalay is a relatively young city, founded in the 19th century by the king of Burma (as Myanmar was once known).  Mandalay lost its status as a capital when Great Britain annexed the Burmese kingdom a few decades after the city was built.  This video will give you an aerial perspective of this stunningly beautiful city in the heart of the Burmese jungle.  

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden after Stockholm.  A port city, it faces the northern tip of Denmark, beyond which lies the North Sea.  It hosts many festivals, including the annual Gothenburg Film Festival, the largest such event in Scandinavia.  Droneflix used a Phantom 4 Pro drone to create this mesmerizing portrait of the city from an aerial perspective.  Most of the footage is of the city's port, Sweden's primary port for trans-Atlantic trade and its largest by gross tonnage.

Kaunas is the second largest city in the Baltic Republic of Lithuania, after Vilnius.  Like Vilnius, it sits not on the Baltic Sea but in the interior of the country.   Kaunas was actually the capital of the country during the interwar period, when Vilnius was considered to be part of Poland.  Contributor ThePaulenzo used a DJI Phantom 4 drone to create an impressive aerial view of this well preserved medieval city at night.  Considered the country's cultural capital, Kaunas has a population of about 300,000.

Check out this amazing "tilt shift" drone video of the great Mexican city of Guadalajara.  Capital of the state of Jalisco in Central Mexico, Guadalajara is Mexico's second largest city after Mexico City and one of its greatest cultural centers.  It's the center of a metropolitan area of over 5 million, also the country's second largest.  The city was founded by the Spanish conquistadore Cristóbal de Oñate in 1532 but moved several times before coming to its current location about a decade later.  

Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana) is the capital and second largest city of Kazakhstan, the Central Asian republic.  Since the capital was moved from Almaty in the late 1990's, Nur-Sultan has been more or less completely remade with new construction.  Contributor and pilot Dronex.pro created this amazing drone video of the gleaming city.  At the :30 mark is a climb sequence in which you'll see the top of the 2012 vintage, 64 story Emerald Towers I building: at 240 meters (about 780 ft.), it's one of the tallest buildings in Central Asia.  

Check out this fascinating drone tour of Lahore, Pakistan, compliments of new AirVuz contributor vasiq eqbal.  The video was filmed both during and after the Covid-19 lockdowns in the Spring of 2020 which left many of the public spaces in Pakistan's second-largest city virtually empty.  Helpfully captioned, the video features footage of the Pakistan Monument, GC University, the Eiffel Tower, the Lahore Motorway, Data Darbar, the Grand Mosque Bahria, the Old Toninton Market, the Badshahi Mosque, Punjab University, and more.  

Contributor Barrycocks skillfully blended drone and ground camera footage to create this beautiful video of Split, Croatia.  Situated on the country's Dalmatian Coast on the Adriatic Sea, Split is the country' second largest city after the capital, Zadar.  It is perhaps best known as the home of Diocletian's Palace, a landmark built for the Roman Emperor Diocletian in the 4th century AD.  About half of Split's Old Town is covered by the grounds of the palace, one of the largest such structures built in Europe during the Antiquity.  

AirVuz contributor Paschalis Doumanis brings us this excellent drone video of Thessaloniki, Greece's second-largest city.  The video opens with a shot of the city's waterfront, and starting at the :13 mark there's a nice shot flying towards the  White Tower of Thessaloniki, perhaps its most famous landmark.  At :24, you'll see the Port of Thessaloniki, Greece's largest export seaport.  At 1:32, there's a great shot of Aristotelous Square, the city's largest public plaza, and at 1:51 you'll see the statue of Alexander the Great.  

Take a tour of the great city of Busan, South Korea in this fantastic drone video by AirVuz contributor Chrisky.  Located near the mouth of the Nakdong River on the country's southeastern coast, Busan is South Korea's second-largest city after Seoul.  Its port, the busiest in the country and one of the ten busiest in the world, is a key component of South Korea's export-driven economy.  Highlights of the video include extensive footage of the Diamond Bridge (Gwangandaegyo); completed in 2002, it's South Korea's second-longest span.  

Montreal takes its name from Mount Royal, the small mountain which lies immediately to the west of the center of Quebec's principal city.  It's really a series of hills, the tallest of which is about 230 meters (just over 760 ft.) above sea level.  Its modest peaks provide great views of the city's downtown area.  It stands to reason then that flying a drone over Mt. Royal provides an even better view of the city.  Contributor RealMont Vlog - Montreal did just that, creating this beautiful aerial view of the river city.

Explore the great Dutch city of Rotterdam in this excellent drone video by Rodoworld.  The video opens with shots of the Erasmusbrug bridge, which spans the Nieuwe Maas, a distributary of the Rhine River which runs through the heart of the city.  At the :36 mark, you'll see the White House, which was one of the few buildings in the center of the city not destroyed in the terror bombing during the Nazi invasion of the Low Countries in 1940.  Other highlights include the Willemsbrug bridge (:45), the Hotel New York (1:16), and more.  

Kharkiv (Kharkov) is the second-largest Ukrainian city after Kiev, and the largest in its eastern half.  A relatively young city by European standards, Kharkiv is the country's largest industrial center.  You can take an aerial tour of the great city of the Donets River Basin in this excellent drone video by SlavBrovko; highlights include the ferris wheel of the Gorky Central Park at the :20 mark, the Palace of Industry building (Derzhprom) on Freedom Square (:50), the Dormition Cathedral (1:20), and more.

Geneva, Switzerland is widely regarded as one of the world's most desirable cities.  Located on the shores of Lake Geneva, it is the country's second largest city and the largest in its French-speaking region.  With its distinctive architecture and its iconic fountain in the great alpine lake, it's not only an important financial center but also the home of numerous international organizations including many United Nations agencies.  In this video by Drone_biker, you'll get an aerial tour of this magnificent city.

Debrecen is Hungary's second largest city, after Budapest.  It's located in the east central part of the country, in the Northern Great Plain region.  Established no later than the 13th century, Debrecen was the capital of the (brief) proto-state of Hungary that emerged from the great Revolution of 1848 but which was soon quashed by the Habsburg rulers in Austria.  Heavily damaged during World War II but later restored, you can get a nice air/ground video tour of Debrecen at Christmas in this excellent video by K&P studio.  

New AirVuz contributor Käpätzy created this excellent drone video of Tampere, Finland's second-largest city.  It's located in the south-central part of the country, roughly a two hour drive northwest of Helsinki.  Tampere is situated between Lakes Näsijärvi and Pyhäjärvi, which are separated by nearly 20 meters (about 60 ft.) of vertical distance and connected by rapids.  The city used this energy source to industrialize in the 19th century, earning the nickname the "Manchester of Finland".  

Chittagong is Bangladesh's second largest city, after Dhaka.  The city lies in the southeastern part of the country, on the banks of the Karnaphuli River near its mouth on the Bay of Bengal.  In some respects the country's business and commercial co-capital, it's home to the largest port in Bangladesh.  One of the oldest cities of Southeast Asia, it was considered the most important city in the Kingdom of Bengal well into Colonial times.  Take an aerial tour of Chittagong in this excellent drone video by Archi Skyhigh.

Batumi is the second-largest city in the Caucasus republic of Georgia, after the capital city Tbilisi.  Situated on the country's Black Sea coastline, it's also home to Georgia's largest port.  Sometimes called the Las Vegas of the Black Sea, Batumi's economy is largely driven by gambling and tourism in addition to shipping.  Batumi was part of the Ottoman Empire until Turkey's defeat in the Russia-Turkish War of 1877-8, following which it was ceded to Russian Empire of which Georgia was then part. 

Top AirVuz contributor RebelAct brings us this excellent drone video from Plovdiv, Bulgaria's "second city" after the capital, Sofia.  Plovdiv lies on the banks of the Maritsa River near the country's geographic center.   Settled since the Antiquity, Plovdiv is one of Bulgaria's primary cultural centers.  At the 1:28 mark, you'll see the theatre of Philippopolis, one of the best-preserved Roman theaters.  Other highlights include the Singing Fountains at the garden of  Tsar Simeon (4:40), the WW II era Alyosha Monument (5:28), and more.