Centre of Europe Marker

Beside the Tisza at Dilove stands a stone marker set up in 1887 by Austro-Hungarian geographers, with a Latin inscription recording a permanent point of measurement, and it has been read ever since as marking the geographic centre of Europe. Whether it does depends entirely on where you decide Europe's edges are, and at least half a dozen other places across the continent make the same claim on different assumptions. A modern monument stands beside the original.

Highlights

• The 1887 marker - the original Austro-Hungarian stone with its Latin inscription.
• The modern monument - a later addition beside it for photographs.
• The Tisza - the river running along the border below the site.
• The valley - the Marmarosh slopes rising on both sides.

When to go

May to October is the comfortable season. It is a roadside stop of twenty minutes at any time. The site is quieter on weekdays.

Good to know

The centre-of-Europe claim is one of several and depends on arbitrary choices about the continent's boundaries; the original inscription does not actually say what it is usually quoted as saying. There is nothing else at the site. Sellers work the pull-in.

Nearby

Rakhiv is upstream, and the Romanian border runs along the river.