hidden europe 5

Pivotal points: defining Europe's centre

by Nicky Gardner

Summary

We track down two monuments that claim to mark the spot at the very centre of Europe.

In hidden europe 2 (May 2005) we explored the very extremities of mainland Europe, travelling from Portugal's Atlantic coast to the Caspian Sea in Azerbaijan, and from northern Norway to southern Spain, to locate those cardinal points that define the very limits of European geography. But what of the middle of Europe? Is there a point worthy of cartographic recognition? Pause, if you will, ponder your own mental maps and try and make an estimate of where you think the centre of Europe might plausibly lie. Somewhere around Luxembourg perhaps? Along the Rhine or neatly positioned on some snowy Alpine peak?

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