The geographic center of Europe.
By katarina
14 comments
One never knows, where exactly the center of Europe is. It depends on methods how to measure it and also the definition of that place. For instance, geographic center of Europe is the place, from which there is similar distance to all the seas around Continent. Or it is a place, which is equally far from all most extreme points of the Continent. Of course, old Continent has changed in thousand of years (Netherlands for instance).
That is why there are several geographic centers in Europe. One of them is declared to be for centuries at the church of St. John the Baptist in Kremnicke Bane.
This church was re-built in 1930 on the place of the original gothic chapel from the 12th century. Tower was built in medieval age.
The legend says, that orginal chapel was intended to be in a different place. What masons built in one day, they found crumbled on the other. A secret voice advised them to build the church in other place. So they searched. One day they heard cry and when they followed it, they noticed a baby crying in a burning bush. They saved the child and decided to build the church here. The legend says that original altar was built on the place of burning bush (reminds me Moses and his burning bush). So – this is a quite different story, then typical for masnry, doesn´t it? In typical masons´ legend there is usually a master mason, who is killed. So not here. We are not “blood thirsty” characters :))
This place is interesting also with gold and silver mines and spring, which gives origin to two big rivers.
19 Aug, 2012
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Comments
Hello Sticki :))) Noooo. Austrian Alps are much much higher. This regin is hilly, but for sure it has far from Alps.
19 Aug, 2012
but still lovely! it was the church that remind me ~ the tyrol??
i love that wild flower meadow too
19 Aug, 2012
Lovely pictures Katarina. And interesting story:)
I always thought the centre of Europe is in my country, near city called Lodz, lol
19 Aug, 2012
I picked some field flowers there, Sticki :)) They are so nice. Now they are in a vase on the kitchen table.
19 Aug, 2012
Yes, Kasia, one of the centers is in Poland and one in Ukraine. It depends what is measured, as I said. :))
You can find it on google.
19 Aug, 2012
i bet they look gorgeous
19 Aug, 2012
Extremely good :))
19 Aug, 2012
i dont think we are allowed to pick wild flowers here, im never sure. we are not allowed to pick bluebells, they are protected.
19 Aug, 2012
Yes, somewhere they are protected, too, but in this region not, as it is used as pastures.
19 Aug, 2012
Thank you for your photographs. No doubt professional navigators would have a different centre for Europe.
20 Aug, 2012
Hi Diane, you are right. As I said, it depends on definition of the centre of Europe. This one has been among others on the list for centuries. It is also internationally known as "historical" geographic centre of Europe, which is anyway curious, as this place is in very hidden place (out of all famous capitals, just among hills and pastures), so any political intention would be curious. Also taking into account present measurements, we do not know, how the Continent looked like several hundreds years ago. I am sure professional navigators from Soviet union will put it now somewhere around Moscow :) I believe to old measurements :))
Yes, we all - all over the world - like, if the Earth axis turns around us, lol.
20 Aug, 2012
What a beautiful place, and a fascinating blog.
It is interesting about "centres", Katarina. There is a very small town - a village, really - called Haltwhistle. It is in Northumberland, near Hadrian's Wall. It calls itself the centre of Britain, so it must measure from all the extremities of the mainland of the British Isles.
23 Aug, 2012
Yes, I know about that one, Melchisede. Britain has its own geographic centre.
24 Aug, 2012
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that looks so beautiful, reminds me of the Austrian Alps
19 Aug, 2012