Geographical midpoint of Europe, Survey marker in Suchowola, Poland

The geographical midpoint of Europe is not one fixed spot: competing markers exist in Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Poland and elsewhere, each from a different calculation. The Lithuanian monument near Girija, north of Vilnius, is a white granite column topped by a crown of stars, erected in 2004 after the French national geographic institute's 1989 centre-of-gravity calculation. Granite tiles around the column give distances to European and world capitals.

In 2000, Belarusian scientists Alexey Solomonov and Valery Anoshko published a study placing the centre 48 km southwest of Polotsk, near Lake Sho in Vitebsk Region. Their computer model treated Europe as a single landmass including the White and Baltic Seas, England and Ireland, and accounted for inland waters and the Ural Mountains. Russian geodesists from TsNIIGAiK confirmed the result, and a small memorial sign was erected in Polotsk on 31 May 2008.

The wooden frame standing on the grass is an empty picture frame, and through its opening visitors see a red-and-white striped survey pole leaning against a grey stone block, with a small sign on a metal post beside it. The pole's red, white and green bands mark it as a surveying marker, the kind of instrument used to fix such midpoints.

The Belarusian marker stands in the Vitebsk Region, 48 km southwest of Polotsk near Lake Sho, at coordinates 55.181944°N 28.258333°E. The small memorial sign was erected in Polotsk on 31 May 2008, and the sign itself carries different coordinates pointing to the town centre. The site lies in forest, so sturdy footwear helps.

The Suchowola claim dates to 1775, when royal astronomer Szymon Antoni Sobiekrajski measured equal distances from Europe's extreme points, ignoring islands. A monument there marks his result. The Lithuanian site near Girija, fixed by France's national geographic institute in 1989, is the only European midpoint listed in the Guinness records.