Geographic extremities

These days I came back from a trip to Lillehammer (Norway) and its surroundings. Located at 61°8'15''N, this was the northernmost point of Europe I have ever been.

The northernmost point of the entire mainland of Europe (though I have never been there) would be Knivskjellodden (71°11'07''N), 4 km northwest of the famous North Cape (which is often referred to as the northernmost point of Europe itself – especially by Tourists who sometimes travel thousands of kilometres all the way up to the far north, but then refuse to hike the last 8 kilometres to the actual northernmost point).

In this context, my definition of "mainland" is: any point which you can reach from, let’s say: Vienna, Paris or Berlin, without using a plane or a ship (and without swimming). While Knivskjellodden (and also the Nord Cape) are located on the island of Magerøya, they can be reached through a 7 km long subsea tunnel since 1999, and are therefore within reach without a plane or a ship.

The southernmost point of mainland Europe is then Isla de las Palomas in Spain. It is located at latitude 36°00'03''N. (Unfortunately the island is a military zone, but there are nice pictures on the net)

The westernmost point is Cabo da Roca in Portugal, 9°29'56'' east of Greenwich.

It is not so easy to determine the easternmost point of Europe, as there is no well-defined border like a shore-line between Europe and Asia. I think that the Russian Republic of Komi might be the easternmost part of Europe and therefore its easternmost point at 66°15'06" east of Greenwich also Europe’s easternmost point.

Austrian geographic extremities:

Austria’s northernmost point is located at 49°1'15''N, 8 km north of Litschau (Lower Austria).

The southernmost point is located at latitude 46°22'20"N, 13 km south of Bad Eisenkappel (Carinthia).

Westernmost point: 6 km north-west of Feldkirch (Vorarlberg): 9°31'51'' east of Greenwich.
By the way: This point is a so called tripoint where the borders of three countries meet (here: Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland).

Easternmost geographical point of Austria: located 4 km east of Deutsch Jahrndorf (Burgenland): 17°9'39" east of Greenwich.
Again this is a tripoint (between Austria, Slovakia and Hungary; there are 42 tripoints in Europa, 8 of which are at Austria’s borders).

More trivia:

It would be a 3.344 km trip by car from the northernmost point of Austria to Europe’s northernmost point. Or 2.530 km as the crow flies.

The most direct route by road from the southernmost point of Austria to the southernmost point of Europe is about 2.711 kilometres; the great circle route would be 2.037 km.

Distance between the westernmost point of Austria and the westernmost point of Europe: 1.808 km air-line distance, 2.383 km road distance.

It is 3.498 km as the crow flies from the easternmost point of Austria to the easternmost point of Europe. I don’t know the distance along the road, as there is no road map of Komi available (at least not for me).

At the easternmost point of Austria the sun rises 30 minutes earlier than at the westernmost point.

On June 21st (Summer solstice) the time from dawn to dusk at Austria’s northernmost point lasts for 16 hours and 12 minutes which is 24 minutes more than the 15 hours and 48 minutes daylight at the southernmost point on the same day.

Six month later, at the beginning of winter (December 21, normally the shortest day of the year), the southernmost point has daylight for 8 hours and 35 minutes, approximately 22 minutes more than at the northernmost point.

And the geographical centre?

If you calculate the arithmetic mean of the extreme values of both longitude and latitude, the centre would be 990 m north-west of the Königsbachalm in the municipality of St. Gilgen (Salzburg, near the Lake Wolfgangsee).

But there are different opinions about the definition of the centre of a country, based on different interpretations of the term itself, definitions of boundaries, and geometrical or mathematical measurement and calculation methods.

So we will discuss this elsewhere.