Croatian Town in Centre of the World Set to Celebrate

London, Paris, New York, LA…places that are often metaphorically labeled the centre of the world , but it is a small town in Croatia which literally holds claim to this title, and they are again about to celebrate that fact…

The small town of Ludbreg in north-western Croatia will again be celebrating Centre of the World Day on 1 April. This annual celebration, not an April Fool’s joke despite the date,  has made this small town famous all around the world. The folk of Ludbreg claim that if you were to spread a map of the world flat, then it is their town which is bang smack in the middle.

Centre of the World Day is celebrated every year on 1 April, a date taken from the records of the Pauline abbot Honorius on which, in 1141, Ludbrega was born in the town of Varaždinske Toplice. The Romans built a town on the site of today’s Ludbreg, having observed its good geographical location. By examining the latitudes and longitudes, Weddingen discovered that on the opposite side of Earth, the antipode to Ludbreg is the tiny South Pacific island Antipodes, near New Zealand.

Ludbreg, which is located between Varaždin and Koprivnica, will again celebrate the occasion with a feast, including local  wine from the Podravina region poured directly from the town’s fountain.