Where is the center of Europe?

A point on the surface of the earth, designated as the center of a country or continent, has great potential in terms of tourism business. In the age of self to fix its being in the center of any part of the world - a matter of honor for any traveler.

The center of Europe today does not have a generally recognized location, several villages and towns in different countries claim its title.

Calculation methods

The ambiguity in determining the geographical center stems from the variety of ways to calculate it. They boil down to several options:

• Calculation of the position of the center of gravity of the area of certain outlines.
• Projection of the center of gravity on the Earth's surface, taking into account the sphericity of the planet.
• Finding a point equidistant from the boundaries of the territory.
• Calculation of the location of the intersection point of segments, pairwise connecting the extreme north and south, west and east points, is the median center.

The last method was to determine the geographical center of Europe in 1775 by the court astronomer and cartographer of the Polish king Augustus Shimon Antony Sobekraisky. The point of intersection of the lines connecting Portugal and the Central Ural, Norway and Southern Greece was located at the point with coordinates 53 ° 34'39 "N, 23 ° 06'22" in. Etc. In this place, in the town of Sukhovol, near Bialystok, on the territory of modern Poland, a memorial sign was erected.

Calculations in the XIX century

In 1815 the center of Europe was placed at the point with coordinates 48 ° 44'37 "N, 18 ° 55'50" in. Etc., which was located near the town of Kremnica, near the Baptist church of St. John, in the territory of modern Slovakia. The calculation methods have not been preserved, but there is a version that this is the center of the smallest circle inscribed in the outlines of Europe. As its boundaries were defined, it is also unknown.

In 1887, geographers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire installed a marker with coordinates 48 ° 30 's for the construction of new railways in Transcarpathia. W., 23 ° 23 'in. Etc., defining it as the midpoint of the extreme latitude and longitude of the Old World. The center of Europe in their version is located on the bank of the Tisza, near the Ukrainian village of Delovoy. In the Soviet times, the truth of the calculations was confirmed, and a whole propaganda campaign was conducted to convince everyone of the truth of this variant of the geographical center of Europe.

Another center of the European part of the world was identified at the end of the 19th century in the form of Tillenberg Mountain near the town of Eger in Bohemia, Czechia, where a memorial sign was also installed, and this fact was actively used for advertising purposes by the authorities of neighboring villages.

The most "untwisted" monument

In 1989, the scientists of the National Geographic Institute of France refined the boundaries of the European part of the world and the method of calculating the center of gravity of the geometric figure determined by the outlines of the oldest part of the world determined that the geographical center of Europe is at the point with coordinates 54 ° 54 ' W., 25 ° 19 'in. Etc. It is located in Lithuania, 26 km from Vilnius, near the village of Purnuskiai.

The State Department of Tourism of this country estimated the importance of this place as a means of attracting foreign visitors, and in 2004 the park of Europe was opened here. It includes a sculpture park, where more than 90 works by contemporary artists from 27 countries are presented. The geographical center of Europe is marked by a monument created by the outstanding Lithuanian sculptor Gediminas Jokubonis. It is a white granite column, crowned with a crown of gold stars. The Lithuanian variant of the center of the Old World is the only one entered in the Guinness Book of Records.

Hungary, Estonia

In 1992, another measurement was made, which claimed that the center of Europe is in Hungary, in the village of Tallia, at the point 48 ° 14 's. W., 21 ° 13 'in. Etc. There is also a memorial sign.

Most of the measurements do not include small islands belonging to European states in Europe. If you take into account the Portuguese Azores in the Atlantic, Franz Josef Land in the Arctic Ocean, Crete and Iceland, it turns out that the center of Europe is located on the island of Saaremaa, in the western part of Estonia. The local municipality is trying to clarify these calculations and organize in the village of Myonuste, closest to the point 58 ° 18'14 "N, 22 ° 16'44" in. Etc., a tourist zone dedicated to this landmark.

Polotsk, Belarus

At the beginning of the 21st century, studies by Belarusian scientists A. Solomonov and V. Anoshko were published. They used a special computer program in which the location of the geographical center of Europe was subject to a special algorithm associated with the inclusion in the territory of our part of the world of the area of internal and external water areas and the Ural ridge as its eastern boundary.

Scientists from the Russian Central Research Institute of Geodesy and Cartography confirmed the correctness of this approach and the correctness of calculations. According to them, the geographical center of the Old World is located in Belarus, in the city of Polotsk, and has coordinates 55 ° 30'0 "N, 28 ° 48'0" in. Etc. A small monument with the symbolic designation of this point was opened in May 2008.

Taking into account political changes

There is a belief that it is necessary to count this milestone point only for the member countries of the European Union. Given the fact that the number of countries participating in this association varies, the settlement point moves accordingly, the villages and cities of the center of Europe are changing.

The National Geographic Institute of France (IGN) since 1987 records this bias, depending on the change in the number of countries in the EU :

• 12 countries (1987) - the village of Saint-André-le-Cock in the central region of France, after the reunification of Germany (1990) moved 25 km to the northeast, to the town of Noirette.
• 15 countries (2004) - the town of Viruwanwal, Belgium.
• 25 states (2007) - the village of Kleinmayscheid, the land of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
• 27 countries (2007) - after the accession of Romania and Bulgaria - near the city of Geinhausen, the land of Hesse, Germany.
• 28 countries (2013) - forty kilometers from Frankfurt, where the headquarters of the European Central Bank is located, which is even symbolic.