Where is the Center of Europe?
What is Europe? It’s actually a harder question to answer than it seems. Europe is both a political, cultural, and geographic concept, and Europe’s boundaries within each one of those categories are far from clear.
I have heard several people say, “country x is the geographical center of Europe.” I most recently heard it from some Belorussians. Apparently, enough people have made competing claims that the great Wikipedia has decided to help sort it all out.
Here’s a map of some claimants, though not all.
Some claimants to the Center of Europe
Some of the proposed locations also have neat monuments. I love random monuments/architecture like this:
Monument to the Center of Europe in Lithuania
Monument to the Center of Europe in Belgium
What do you think? Where is the Center of Europe?
From my Portuguese point of view … Germany is a strong candidate.
Comment by http://hekate-hkt.blogspot.com/ — September 3, 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Belorus!!! Беларусь!!!
http://video.mail.ru/mail/zvezda_news/4/664.html
Comment by Olesya — September 7, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
Haha, I think there’s an Austrian town that holds a patent on being the center of Europe.. (then again, they probably only hold that in Austria.)
I was looking at the map.. the place in Slovakia looks like a good candidate, or, given that Iceland is so far north, maybe one of the places in Poland (Torun). I have no idea of course though.
Comment by Lucia — September 8, 2008 @ 6:30 am
And the Belorussian chimes in!
I agree that by looking at the map, Slovakia seems like a good candidate. I think, however, that if you consider Europe as going all the way to the Urals, it’s practically half in Russia! That’s probably why Ukraine and Belarus has some claim. I really don’t know what that German town is thinking, though!
Comment by Owen — September 8, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
Owen, I think you need to consider geographic, cultural and political centers of Europe separately.
If the Russian European part is added in, Ukraine is clearly the geographic center of Europe, actually the very Southwestern tip of Ukraine. And there is a monument there as well, in the Carpathian Mountains.
But culturally, the center of Europe would have to be in Germany or Austria. Ukraine, with its post-Russian and post-Soviet baggage, cannot yet pretend to be the center of Europe. Although many would say it is definitely on its way. The Orange Revolution certainly is major evidence of this. An event like that simply could not happen in Russia or Belarus (at least not in Lukashenka’s Belarus). It would be easily crushed by tanks and erased from history books.
Comment by Aleks — September 11, 2008 @ 2:18 am
I don’t think it’s so clear that Ukraine would have the center. Fortunately, I have no claim on any of the land, and hence, no ego to uphold
Comment by Owen — September 15, 2008 @ 11:27 pm