Starting with some basic deliberations about the importance of towns and urban life's sphere the paper is focused on the ample representation of towns (town-views and town-plans). A sketch of the organisational and institutional frame-work for the development of the respective research, i.e. urban historical science, for the last Century is being given. With respect to this the »International Commission for the History of Towns« founded at the International Historical Congress in Rome, 1955, which was under the presidency of Sergij Vilfan during the 1980's, is taking centre stage. The Commission with its big research-projects, especially the Towns Atlases meanwhile being published in 17 European countries, has contributed essentially in forming a decisive basis for respective research-activities. This is not only true with regard to the actual »spatial turn« of cultural Sciences. The function of Towns Atlases is much wider, in some respect they can be characterised as proper editions for urban research-work, and even far beyond historical disciplines. The advancement of this Atlas-project from the late 1960’s onwards, from the mere idea to its manifold realisation, is being illustrated, and it is by no meatis exaggerated to speak about a real history of success. At the moment Towns Atlases for no less than 435 European towns are already published — on the whole a propej and plan-based editorial fundament for comparative analyses and studies. The possibilities to make use of the Adases are another focus of the presentation, in the end culminating in some cautious forecasts to the future development.