Few years in Europe's postwar history will be so little missed as 2020.
It kicked open the door to fear, upheaval and death on a scale unrivalled in peacetime for more than a century. Death walked unabashed in cities and villages, the lonely rooms of retirement homes, the overwhelmed intensive care units of hospitals.
Across Europe, AP photographers have captured the images that encapsulate the year gone by.
Images of coffins in affluent northern Italy shocked the continent, just as a picture of a Spanish patient in his hospital bed pushed out onto a sunlit, seaside promenade to recuperate spread a frisson of hope.
As COVID-19's full power to kill and disrupt invaded the consciousness of hundreds of millions of Europeans, many lives were cut short but all were turned topsy-turvy: Masks became mandatory, workplaces relocated to studies, kitchens and closets lit by the glow of video conferences — punctuated by the hum of household life and cameo appearances by children or pets. For many, work stopped altogether or was suspended for months by repeated lockdowns, as government aid replaced monthly paychecks.
Economic activity withered and travel largely ground to a halt, together with most forms of social gathering — this Christmas will be a feast of seclusion.
But the close of the year brought the hope of inoculation. With vaccines approved in Britain and the European Union, and the first jabs administered, the continent keyed up for an gigantic vaccination race to outstrip the speed of infection.
2020 also unleashed a wave of protest and societal scrutiny, rising from the police killing of a Black man in the U.S. Many European societies were called upon to assess the darker recesses of their own history and examine their enduring contemporary imprint.
Britain officially demolished its political ties with the continent by leaving the EU in January after nearly half a century, and the two sides spent the rest of the year failing to strike a deal on the economic terms of their divorce.
On Europe's easternmost fringes, war in the mountains of Nagorno-Karabakh killed thousands and offered an unsettling insight into future battlefields where drones can rain death on ill-prepared armor columns and troops.
In Belarus, opposition swelled to a strongman in power for 26 years, whose re-election in a tainted process triggered massive demonstrations that drew a heavy police crackdown.
Migrants and refugees continued to seek a better life in the continent, and hundreds died on their way to European shores. In Greece, a notorious island camp burned down, only to be resurrected a few miles down the road.
Brexit supporters celebrate during a rally in London, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. Britain leaves the European Union after 47 years, leaping into an unknown future in historic blow to the bloc. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Why Brexit? written on the hat of Anti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray as he stands outside Parliament in London, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
The Union flag is lowered and removed from outside of the European Parliament in Brussels, Friday, Jan. 31, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A migrant cries as she tries to warm herself as she and others arrive at the village of Skala Sikaminias, on the Greek island of Lesbos, after crossing the Aegean sea from Turkey, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
Men from Morocco and Bangladesh react on an overcrowded wooden boat, as aid workers of the Spanish NGO Open Arms approach them in the Mediterranean Sea, international waters, off the Libyan coast, Friday, Jan. 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Santi Palacios)
Migrants trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, approach the border gate during clashes in Kastanies village, Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A migrant uses a blanket to warm himself in a field near Edirne, at the Turkish-Greek border on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Marine One carrying US President Donald Trump travels to the Davos landing zone in Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
An aircraft passes the rising full moon that breaks through the clouds at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Monday, March 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Kate the Duchess of Cambridge, center, gestures as she tries hurling next to Britain's Prince William at Salthill Knocknacarra GAA Club in Galway, Ireland, Thursday, March 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison)
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrive to attend the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey in London, Monday, March 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
A gondolier looks at his smartphone as he waits for clients in Venice, Italy, Friday, Feb. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A combo of portraits of Italian doctors and nurses taken during a break or at the end of their shifts in Rome, Bergamo and Brescia, Italy, Friday, March 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis, Antonio Calanni, Luca Bruno)
Two police officers patrol an almost empty Red Square, with St. Basil's Cathedral, center, and Spasskaya Tower and the Kremlin Wall, right, at the time when its usually very crowded in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Workers move a coffin with the body of a victim of coronavirus as others coffins are stored waiting for burial or cremation at the Collserola morgue in Barcelona, Spain, Thursday, April 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A man sleeps on the pavement as the country's army was called to assist the police in enforcing a full day lockdown, with people allowed out of their houses for a very limited number of purposes, in an effort to limit the spread of the new coronavirus in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, March 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Josefa Ribas, 86, who is bedridden, looks at nurse Alba Rodriguez as Ribas’ husband, Jose Marcos, 89, stands by in their home in Barcelona, Spain, March 30, 2020, during the coronavirus outbreak. Ribas suffers from dementia, and Marcos fears for them both if the virus enters their home. "If I get the virus, who will take care of my wife?" (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A relative of Margodt Genevieve, who died due to Covid-19, grieves over her coffin during her funeral ceremony at the Montignies cemetery in Charleroi, Belgium, Wednesday, April 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
In this photo taken on Friday, April 10, 2020 nurse Cristina Settembrese fixes two masks to her face during her work shift in the COVID-19 ward at the San Paolo hospital in Milan, Italy. Settembrese spends her days caring for COVID-19 patients in a hospital ward, and when she goes home, her personal isolation begins by her own choice. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
A worshipper prays during the celebrations marking Easter, at the chapel of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, April 11, 2020. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)
Anamaria Bud shows her "cat number" at the Romina Orfei Circus, parked in San Nicola la Strada, near Naples, Italy, Sunday, April 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Pallbearers, Louis Mercier, right, and Allan Pottier, left, prepare to carry the body of a 105-year-old woman as they prepare her for funeral at a mortuary, in Paris, Friday, April 24, 2020 as a nationwide confinement continues to counter the COVID-19 virus. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
Agustina Cañamero, 81, and Pascual Pérez, 84, hug and kiss through a plastic film screen to avoid contracting the new coronavirus at a nursing home in Barcelona, Spain, June 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Musicians rehearse at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, June 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Russian soldiers wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus, march toward Red Square to attend a dress rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 20, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Gala, 7, speaks with her friend and classmate Oliver, 6, as they jump on the wall on their courtyard in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, April 29, 2020 as the lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus continues. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Pathologists wearing special suits to protect against coronavirus, reveal the body of a man who died of coronavirus, outside a hospital's morgue in Ternopil, Ukraine. Ukraine's troubled health care system has been overwhelmed by COVID-19, even though it has reported a relatively low number of cases, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Wearing protective suits against infection, funeral home workers remove the body of an elderly person who died of COVID-19 at a nursing home while another resident sleeps in his bed in Barcelona, Spain Thursday Nov. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Sabatino Di Girolamo, right, mayor of Roseto degli Abruzzi mourns his mother Annunziata, laid in state in the morgue of the Giuseppe Mazzini Hospital in Teramo, central Italy, Tuesday, May 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)
Orthodox worshipers, a few wearing masks for protection against the COVID-19 virus, spread around an open archaeological site outside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, which includes ruins dating as far back as the Roman Empire, hold candles during a religious service in the Black Sea port of Constanta, Romania, Wednesday, May 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
A patient infected with COVID-19 is treated in one of the intensive care units (ICU) at the Severo Ochoa hospital in Leganes, outskirts of Madrid, Spain, Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Nurse Ginevra Fattori gets ready before entering the sub-intensive care unit of the San Filippo Neri hospital in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
Father Vasily Gelevan, wearing a biohazard suit and gloves to protect against the coronavirus, gives the Bible to kiss to Serafima Matveyeva, 92, who is suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, at her apartment in Moscow, Russia, May 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Medical workers wearing protective gear to protect against coronavirus infection, carry a patient at infectious diseases hospital where patients with coronavirus are treated in St.Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, June 3, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Projector operator Pavlos Lepeniotis checks the quality of a movie film inside a warehouse at the Zephyros open-air cinema that specializes in films from past decades in Ano Petralona, central Athens, June 3, 2020. Lepeniotis has worked in movie theaters since age 12. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
People wearing face masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus gather in a discotheque in Madrid, Spain, early Saturday, July 25, 2020. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
A woman waves to nursing home residents and nurses as they attend a service of the protestant church under the theme 'Glimmer of hope' in front of the nursing centre Schanzehof in Tiefenort, central Germany, Thursday, May 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer)
The sun begins to rise through trees as Bluebells, also known as wild Hyacinth, bloom in the Hallerbos forest in Halle, Belgium, on Thursday, April 16, 2020. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Thousands of people demonstrate in Cologne, Germany, Saturday June 6, 2020, to protest against racism and the recent killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
A demonstrator punches a puppet depicting US President Donald Trump during a Black Lives Matter march in London, Saturday, June 6, 2020, as people protest against the killing of George Floyd by police officers in Minneapolis, USA. Floyd, a black man, died after he was restrained by Minneapolis police while in custody on May 25 in Minnesota. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
Jen Reid poses for photographs in front of the new black resin and steel statue portraying her, entitled "A Surge of Power (Jen Reid) 2020" by artist Marc Quinn after the statue was put up this morning on the empty plinth of the toppled statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston, which was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol, England, Wednesday, July 15, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)
US Actor Johnny Depp arrives at the High Court in London in London, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Actor Johnny Depp is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the paper's executive editor, Dan Wootton, over an April 2018 article that called him a "wife-beater." Depp strongly denies all allegations. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein)
A burned house at the village of Galataki ,near Corinth, 80 kilometers (50 miles) southwest of Athens, on Thursday July 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A rainbow shines over the new San Giorgio Bridge in Genoa, Italy, Monday, Aug. 3, 2020. A large section of the old Morandi bridge collapsed on Aug. 14, 2018, killing 43 people and forcing the evacuation of nearby residents from the densely built-up area. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)
A Russian honor guard is covered by the Chinese national flag during the opening ceremony of the International Military Technical Forum Army-2020 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)
Opposition activist Nina Baginskaya, 73, center, struggles with police during a Belarusian opposition supporters rally at Independence Square in Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Belarusian opposition supporters activate the lights on their phones and wave old Belarusian national flags during a protest rally in front of the government building at Independent Square in Minsk, Belarus, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
Two women kiss covered by an old Belarusian national flag as Belarusian opposition supporters gather towards the Independence Palace in Minsk, Belarus, Sunday, Aug. 30, 2020. (AP Photo/Nadia Buzhan)
Medical workers transport a wounded in a hospital during shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
A man hangs jeans on a washing line, near the tail of a multiple 'Polonez' rocket laying in a nearby balcony of an apartment building after shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery during military conflict in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2020. (AP Photo)
Protesters light torches during a rally in Podgorica, Montenegro, Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Risto Bozovic)
Refugees and migrants carrying their belongings flee a fire burning at Moria camp, on Lesbos island, Greece, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A migrant holds her baby as she runs to avoid a small fire in a field near Mytilene town, on the northeastern island of Lesbos, Greece, Saturday, Sept. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
A whale tail sculpture holds the front carriage of a metro train as it rammed through the end of an elevated section of tracks in Spijkenisse, near Rotterdam, Netherlands, on Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Members of rescue services search for survivors in the debris of a collapsed building in Izmir, Turkey, Monday, Nov. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A Russian TVRain channel journalist tries to give an interview as police officers wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus detain a Russian nationalist, during an unsanctioned action to mark National Unity Day in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A family drives a truck loaded with a small house along a highway as they leave their home village in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
An opera cast member, wearing a mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus, waits behind the stage during the performance of Rusalka in Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)