Where is the geographical midpoint of Europe? The question is straightforward enough, but the answer isn’t. It depends on what exactly you mean by Europe. Does the term define a continent or a political project? If a continent, is Turkey in it? Is Armenia? Which outlying islands are, which vestigial colonies (1) aren’t? And if Europe is a political project, which one? The European Union, the Council of Europe, the Schengen Area, the eurozone (2)?

To such a remarkably elastic concept, one constant seems to apply: whatever its definition, geographers (and politicians, and tourist offices) want to find out where its middle is, and mark it with a curiously bland monument. Europe is dotted with at least a dozen of these monuments. This map shows seven European centre-points, including the oldest, and the currently most accepted midpoints. What follows, provides some explanation on these and a few other claimants.

• 1775: the Polish astronomer and cartographer Szymon Sobiekrajski declared the Polish city of Suchowola (53°34′36″N, 23°6′6″E) to be the geographic centre of Europe - probably the first locality thus garlanded. A large rock still marks the designated spot.
• 1813: according to local tradition, Napoleon proclaimed Dyleň (3) (49°58′4″N, 12°30′10″E), a 3.250 feet (almost 1.000 m) high mountain, to be the geographical centre of Europe. A stone pillar was erected in 1862, during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The site is at present located just inside the Czech Republic, but it is also promoted by the tourist board of the nearby German town of Neualbenreuth.
• At around the same time: another local tradition holds that the selfsame Napoleon declared Braunau am Inn, in Upper Austria, to be Europe’s centre.
• 1887: Austro-Hungarian railway engineers placed Europe’s midpoint in Dilove, near Rakhiv (47°57′46″N, 24°11′14″E). This location, presently in western Ukraine near the Romanian border, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time. The Latin-inscribed geodetic monument still stands, partly because the Austro-Hungarian claim was later resurrected by Soviet propaganda.
• Early 1900s: German geographers concluded that Europe’s midpoint was not located in the Austro-Hungarian Empire but in - what a surprise - Germany: near the Frauenkirche in Dresden.
• Other old claims to Central European fame include those of the towns of Kremnické Bane and Krahule, both near the central Slovakian city of Kremnica; of České Budějovice in the Czech Republic; and of Torun in central Poland (the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus; it is unclear whether he would have approved of the rather shaky claim).
• 1992: a Hungarian claim, largely unrecognised outside of the country, places the Geometric Centre of Europe at the village of Tallya, where a memorial sculpture has duly been unveiled.