Standby for a geography lesson with a difference – because this is geography at its quirkiest.
New book The Atlas of Unusual Borders (Collins), by Serbian Zoran Nikolic, is a truly eye-opening compendium of ‘intriguing boundaries, territories and geographical curiosities’. And a timely book given the growing interest in international boundary issues following Brexit.
Here we present a selection of the tome’s astonishing revelations – and the maps that illustrate them – including the German town that’s not in the EU, the French-Swiss border that passes through the double bed in a honeymoon suite and Spain’s controversial territories in Morocco across the water from Gibraltar – one of which has the world’s shortest land border.
We also bring tidings of the town split in two by the U.S–Canada border and the capital city that’s a ghost town.
You might also be interested to hear about the slice of Kentucky that may one day merge with Missouri.
Scroll down for a fascinating odyssey through a world of enclaves, counter-enclaves and loopy territorial loopholes.
Medurjecje – it’s in Serbia, but it belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina
The tiny village of Medurjecje sits firmly in Serbian territory, but it actually belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina
The tiny village of Medurjecje has 270 inhabitants, covers an area of just under 400 hectares and is in Serbia.
Except that in one important regard, it isn’t.
While it sits firmly in Serbian territory, it actually belongs to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is just over half a mile away.
Mr Nikolic explains: ‘According to a popular local story, during the time of the Ottoman Empire, a Bosnian local ruler gifted one of his wives 400 hectares of land and woods in the vicinity of Priboj in Serbia. When demarcation was established between Austria-Hungary and Turkey, this land was annexed to Bosnia, occupied at that time by the Habsburg Empire. Ever since then, this land has been classed as part of the municipality of Rudo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the meantime, the village of Medurjecje was built there.’
I always wonder when a Spanish politician demands …
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