99 Fun Facts About Europe

Which is the world's smallest sovereign state by both area and population?

Vatican City: the 1929 Lateran Treaty that created it finally settled the long-standing 'Roman question' between the popes and Italy.

Which river flows through four national capitals on its way to the Black Sea?

The Danube: in the early 1970s the Iron Gate dam flooded the island of Ada Kaleh, home to a Turkish Muslim community.

Which city is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state?

Reykjavík: Nuuk in Greenland lies a few kilometres farther north, but Greenland is an autonomous territory, not a sovereign state.

Which country has a large share of its land lying below sea level?

The Netherlands lost a newly reclaimed polder to the St Elizabeth flood of 1421, and the drowned land became the Biesbosch.

Which team, let into Euro 1992 only after Yugoslavia was disqualified, went on to lift the trophy?

Denmark entered as runners-up from Yugoslavia's qualifying group and beat a newly reunified Germany 2–0 in the final.

Which city presents the Nobel Peace Prize, the only Nobel award not handed out in Stockholm?

Oslo: Nobel's will gave this prize to a committee chosen by Norway's parliament, and no one knows why, though Norway was then in union with Sweden.

Which Paris fortress-prison, stormed on 14 July 1789, was holding only seven prisoners that day?

The Bastille's seven inmates included four forgers, yet the storming became the anniversary France marks as its Fête nationale every 14 July.

Which country dissolved into two states on 1 January 1993 in what was dubbed the Velvet Divorce?

Czechoslovakia: parliament decided the split without holding a referendum, and the nickname nods to the bloodless Velvet Revolution of 1989.

Which EU member of the time kept its own currency when euro notes and coins arrived in 2002?

Britain had secured an opt-out from the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, so it never had to give up the pound.

Which dormant Caucasus volcano is usually counted as Europe's highest peak, ahead of Mont Blanc?

Mount Elbrus: German mountain troops planted a swastika flag on its summit in August 1942, and Hitler was reportedly furious at the stunt.

Which river, Europe's longest, never reaches an ocean because it ends in the landlocked Caspian Sea?

The Volga ends in the landlocked Caspian, but since 1952 the Volga–Don Canal has given ships a route to the Black Sea and the oceans.

Which EU member speaks a language derived from Sicilian Arabic, the union's only Semitic official language?

Malta: Sicilian Arabic died out in Sicily by about 1300 but lived on in Malta, where it evolved into Maltese.

Which four-language country labels its stamps 'Helvetia', its Latin name, rather than its own?

Switzerland: the same neutral Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica, is why its internet domain is .ch.

Which city hosts the European Commission and the Council of the EU, seats fixed by the Treaty of Amsterdam?

Brussels has never been formally declared the EU's capital, yet the European Council also fixed its summits there in the early 2000s.

Which French city, official seat of the European Parliament, has hosted the Council of Europe since 1949?

Strasbourg, not Marseille, is where 'La Marseillaise' was composed, in 1792, as a war song for the Army of the Rhine.

The EEC's six founders had pooled which two industries in 1951?

Coal and steel: Robert Schuman said pooling them would make war between France and Germany 'not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible'.

The town of Schengen, which gave its name to Europe's passport-free zone, lies in which country?

Luxembourg hosted the 1985 signing aboard a river boat on the Moselle, at the tripoint where France and Germany meet it.

Which city staged the first modern Olympics in 1896, centred on a stadium refurbished in marble?

Athens: marathon winner Spyridon Louis became a national hero, and at the 1936 Berlin Games he presented Hitler with an olive branch.

Which Polish port's shipyard gave birth to the Solidarity trade union under Lech Wałęsa in 1980?

Gdańsk's shipyard strike ended in an August 1980 agreement with the government, and Wałęsa won the Nobel Peace Prize three years later.

Which state captured Constantinople on 29 May 1453 after a 53-day siege, ending Byzantine rule for good?

The Ottoman Empire's 21-year-old sultan Mehmed II made the city his new capital in place of Adrianople and earned the nickname 'the Conqueror'.

Which capital was levelled by an earthquake, tsunami and firestorm on All Saints' Day in 1755?

Lisbon: its rebuilt Baixa, braced by wooden lattice 'Pombaline cages', is among the earliest earthquake-resistant districts in Europe.

Which city hosted the 1814–15 congress, led by Austria's Metternich, that redrew Europe after Napoleon?

Vienna: the congress signed its Final Act on 9 June 1815, nine days before Napoleon's last defeat at Waterloo.

Which country's near-bloodless Carnation Revolution of April 1974 brought down the Estado Novo regime?

Portugal: restaurant worker Celeste Caeiro handed carnations to soldiers, others put them in gun muzzles, and the flowers named the revolution.

Which island holds Knossos, the heart of the Minoan civilisation?

Crete: 'Minoan' comes from Minos, the legendary king of Crete, a label popularised by Arthur Evans, who excavated Knossos from 1900.

Which country let voters cast legally binding ballots online in its 2005 local elections?

Estonia: an online voter may vote again, and only the last online vote counts, while a paper ballot at a polling station cancels it.

About two million people formed the 1989 Baltic Way human chain to mark 50 years since which pact?

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact: its secret protocol put the Baltic states in the Soviet sphere, a protocol the Soviet Union still denied existed.

Which capital's Palace of the Parliament, ordered by Nicolae Ceaușescu, is believed to be the heaviest building on Earth?

Bucharest: large parts of the historic city were demolished in the 1980s to make way for the palace and its civic centre.

Which Istanbul landmark went from cathedral to mosque to museum and back to mosque in 2020?

Hagia Sophia: after earthquakes brought part of its dome down in the 550s, a new and taller dome was consecrated in 562.

Which nuclear plant's reactor 4 exploded on 26 April 1986 near Pripyat, spreading fallout across Europe?

Chernobyl: Pripyat was abandoned, and the plant's workers were rehoused in a new purpose-built town, Slavutych.

Which Paris landmark was the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair?

The Eiffel Tower was commissioned as a temporary structure for the fair, yet it became the exposition's most famous survivor.

Which Roman amphitheatre was completed under Emperor Titus in AD 80?

The Colosseum was long used as a quarry until Pope Benedict XIV consecrated it to Christ's Passion and installed Stations of the Cross.

Which Barcelona basilica did Gaudí take over in 1883 and never live to see finished?

The Sagrada Família: its central Tower of Jesus Christ was completed in 2026, 144 years after work began, and blessed by Pope Leo XIV.

Which French region's sparkling wine may carry its name only if made there, under an 1891 treaty and EU law?

Champagne: contrary to legend, the monk Dom Pérignon did not invent it, and he actually tried to stop wine refermenting in the bottle.

Which blue cheese, ripened in the Combalou caves of southern France, received the country's first AOC in 1925?

Roquefort: a 1961 court ruling in Millau decided that only cheese ripened in the Combalou caves may bear the name.

Which paprika-seasoned stew, a national dish of Hungary, takes its name from the herdsmen who once cooked it?

Goulash comes from the Hungarian word gulyás, and early versions had no paprika at all, since the spice only reached Europe in the 16th century.

Which Stockholm pop group won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with 'Waterloo', launching a global career?

ABBA: a year before 'Waterloo', their song 'Ring Ring' finished only third in Sweden's national selection for Eurovision.

Which Bohemian city gave its name to the world's first pale lager, brewed there by Josef Groll in 1842?

Plzeň's remarkably soft water, Saaz hops from nearby Žatec and Moravian barley malt produced the clear golden beer now sold as Pilsner Urquell.

Which Italian city's university, conventionally dated to 1088, is Europe's oldest in continuous operation?

Bologna: its foreign scholars lacked the protections of citizens, so Emperor Frederick I granted them legal privileges in the Authentica habita.

Which freshwater rift lake in western Hungary is the largest in Central Europe and a major resort?

Balaton: before German reunification, East and West German families separated by the Berlin Wall often met at its resorts.

Which Warsaw-born scientist was the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences?

Marie Curie died in 1934 of a blood disease linked to her long exposure to radiation.

Which Mainz craftsman built the movable-type printing press that produced a 42-line Bible in 1455?

Johannes Gutenberg: one of his press's early money-makers was printing church indulgences, the documents Luther would later attack.

Which mountain range, stretching from the Arctic Ocean to Kazakhstan, divides European Russia from Siberia?

The Urals: in 1941 many Soviet war factories were evacuated there, and Chelyabinsk became known as 'Tankograd'.

Which microstate has two heads of state at once, a Catalan bishop and the President of France, as co-princes?

Andorra: its co-principality comes from a 1278 treaty between the bishop of Urgell and the count of Foix, whose rights passed to France's head of state.

Which Balkan country, independent since a 2006 referendum, adopted the euro unilaterally in 2002 while outside the EU?

Montenegro: with no monetary agreement with the EU, it cannot mint its own euro coins and relies on euros already in circulation.

Which Alpine pass names the base tunnel that opened in 2016 as the world's longest railway tunnel?

Gotthard: a freight train derailment in August 2023 kept the tunnel partly closed for many months.

Which country did Enver Hoxha fortify with over 100,000 concrete bunkers between the 1960s and 1980s?

Albania: Hoxha feared invasion by NATO or his former Soviet allies, but it never came, and some bunkers have since become homes.

Which lake, the largest lying entirely in Europe, carried the 'Road of Life' ice road into besieged Leningrad?

Ladoga: besides bringing food in, its routes carried more than a million evacuees, mostly women and children, out of Leningrad.

Which Celtic language became an official EU language in 2007?

Irish: even then, EU institutions did not have to translate all documents into it until a derogation ended on 1 January 2022.

Which monument's sarsen circle, capped with lintels, was raised around 2500 BC?

Stonehenge: several of its fallen or leaning stones have been straightened and re-erected in modern restorations.

Which Scottish lake holds more fresh water than every lake in England and Wales put together?

Loch Ness is only the second-largest Scottish loch by surface area, behind Loch Lomond. Its great depth, not its spread, is what makes it the biggest by volume.

Which Bavarian castle built for King Ludwig II inspired Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland?

Neuschwanstein was funded from Ludwig II's own fortune and heavy borrowing, not public money. He lived in the unfinished palace for only 172 days.

Which Bonn-born composer wrote the 'Ode to Joy' melody that the European Union uses as its anthem?

Beethoven wrote the tune for the finale of his Ninth Symphony, setting a poem by Friedrich Schiller. The official anthem is instrumental only, leaving out Schiller's German words.

Which queen became the 'grandmother of Europe' after her nine children married into royal houses?

Victoria's grandchildren included Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II and Russia's Tsarina Alexandra, so the First World War pitted her descendants against one another.

Which pyramid-shaped peak above Zermatt is popularly said to have inspired the shape of Toblerone?

The Matterhorn was first climbed in 1865 by Edward Whymper's party, but four of the seven climbers fell to their deaths on the way down.

Which Munich festival, first held for a royal wedding in 1810, now begins in mid-September?

Oktoberfest was moved forward to catch warmer evenings, so only its final days now fall in October. The 1810 wedding was Crown Prince Ludwig's to Princess Therese, whose name the festival meadow still carries.

Which country's mercenaries in 1600s France wore the knotted scarves that became the necktie?

Croatia gave the cravat its name: the French 'cravate' grew out of 'Croate', the word for a Croat. The country now celebrates Necktie Day every 18 October.

Which territory is home to Barbary macaques, the only wild monkeys living anywhere in Europe?

Gibraltar is popularly said to change hands if its macaques ever leave. When only seven were left in 1942, Winston Churchill ordered more brought over from Morocco and Algeria.

Which sculptor reluctantly agreed to fresco the Sistine Chapel ceiling, finishing the job in 1512?

Michelangelo painted it standing up, not lying on his back as legend has it. He had first suggested that his young rival Raphael do the job instead.

Which country's parliament, the Althing, first met in the open air at Thingvellir around 930?

Iceland's Althing is often called the oldest parliament in the world. Its early sessions were run from the Law Rock, a rocky outcrop where the Lawspeaker presided.

Which city stands on 118 small islands, with buildings resting on tree trunks driven into mud?

Venice began as a refuge: people fleeing invasions settled its sandy islands and drove water-resistant alder trunks through the mud until they hit hard clay.

Which Roman town's dead were recreated by pouring plaster into hollows their bodies left in the ash?

Pompeii lay under 4 to 6 metres of ash and pumice after Mount Vesuvius erupted in AD 79. Giuseppe Fiorelli, who took charge of the dig in 1863, devised the plaster technique.

Which teenage diarist spent two years hidden in a secret annex behind a bookcase in Amsterdam?

Anne Frank's diary survived because her father's secretaries, Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl, saved it. Otto Frank, the only member of the family to survive, returned to find it waiting.

Which artist painted The Last Supper directly onto a convent wall in Milan during the 1490s?

Leonardo da Vinci's mural survived an Allied bomb that struck the room in 1943, shielded by a wall of protective sandbags.

Which cycling race was launched in 1903 to boost sales of the sports newspaper L'Auto?

The Tour de France leader's yellow jersey may echo the yellow newsprint L'Auto was printed on. A rival story says yellow was the only colour a maker could supply at short notice.

Which pandemic of 1346 to 1353, spread mainly by flea bites, killed at least 30% of Europe's people?

The Black Death was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which in its pneumonic form can also pass from person to person on the breath. It may have killed up to 50 million people.

Which country is the largest lying entirely within Europe, ranking second in area behind Russia?

Ukraine is often called the 'breadbasket of Europe': it is among the world's top agricultural producers and exporters.

Which Sicilian volcano, said in Greek myth to pin down the monster Typhon, is Europe's most active?

Mount Etna is in an almost constant state of activity, so its height keeps changing with each summit eruption. At about 3,400 metres it is the tallest peak in Italy south of the Alps.

Which river flows past the Lorelei rock, where legend says a siren's song wrecked passing boats?

The Rhine is Germany's longest river, running about 1,230 km before it empties into the North Sea. The Lorelei bend had a real record of shipwrecks, which the siren story grew up to explain.

Which mountain range runs from the Bay of Biscay to the Mediterranean, dividing Spain from France?

The Pyrenees have almost no low passes, so the main roads and railways between the two countries squeeze through near sea level at either end of the range.

Which strait through Istanbul links the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara and divides Europe from Asia?

The Bosphorus is the world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, so tankers thread a winding channel through the middle of a city of millions.

Which country is doubly landlocked, meaning every one of its neighbours also lacks a coastline?

Liechtenstein shares the distinction with only one other country, Uzbekistan. It also has no army, having abolished it to save money in 1868.

Which country, the most densely populated on Earth, stages a Formula One race on its public streets?

Monaco has held the race since 1929 on a course so tight that it runs through a tunnel. The whole country covers barely two square kilometres.

Which country gave the world IKEA, founded by Ingvar Kamprad, and Volvo's three-point seat belt?

Sweden's IKEA hides a home address in its name: Ingvar Kamprad's initials, then Elmtaryd, the farm where he was born, and Agunnaryd, the village where he grew up.

Which country produced the comic heroes Tintin and the Smurfs as well as the saxophone's inventor?

Belgium's Adolphe Sax patented the saxophone in 1846, and the country later put his face on its 200-franc banknote. Tintin's creator Hergé and the Smurfs' creator Peyo both worked under pen names.

Which puzzle did a Hungarian architecture professor invent in 1974 before it became a 1980s craze?

Rubik's Cube was originally called the Magic Cube. At one point in 1981, three of America's top ten bestselling books were guides to solving it.

Which French region's beaches, code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, were stormed on D-Day?

Normandy saw the largest seaborne invasion in history, with nearly 5,000 landing and assault craft taking part.

Which Tuscan city, long ruled by the Medici family, is widely regarded as the Renaissance's birthplace?

Florence grew rich enough to bankroll a continent: in the late Middle Ages its gold coin, the florin, financed industry from Bruges to Lyon.

In which city did Gavrilo Princip shoot Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, triggering the First World War?

Sarajevo handed the assassin his chance by luck: after an earlier bomb attack failed, the Archduke's driver took a wrong turn and stalled the car close to where Princip stood.

Which palace's Hall of Mirrors hosted the signing of the 1919 treaty that formally ended World War I?

Versailles was chosen on purpose by French premier Georges Clemenceau: the German Empire had been proclaimed in the very same hall in 1871, after France lost the Franco-Prussian War.

Which Greek god, in the form of a white bull, carried off the Phoenician princess Europa in myth?

Zeus tricked Europa by mingling, as a tame bull, with her father's herds. The continent of Europe may take its name from her, though the word's origin is not certain.

Which Genoa-born navigator made four Atlantic voyages for Spain while seeking a western route to Asia?

Christopher Columbus won his backing only after years of lobbying in several kingdoms: Isabella I and Ferdinand II agreed to sponsor him once the Granada War was over.

Which Frankish king, crowned emperor in Rome on Christmas Day 800, is often called the 'Father of Europe'?

Charlemagne united most of western and central Europe and was the first recognised emperor to rule from the west since the fall of the Western Roman Empire about three centuries earlier.

Which American aid programme sent over $13 billion to rebuild Western Europe after the Second World War?

The Marshall Plan was offered to the Soviet Union as well, but it refused the money and blocked Eastern Bloc countries such as Poland and Romania from taking it.

Which Salzburg-born prodigy was composing at five and left his Requiem unfinished when he died at 35?

Mozart had already played for European royalty by the age of five, trained by his father Leopold, who wrote down the boy's first little pieces for him.

Who popularised 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Rapunzel' in print and also began a vast German dictionary?

The Brothers Grimm began the dictionary in 1838 because they were without income and in financial difficulty. It was still unfinished when they died.

Which 1945 summit of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met in a former palace of Tsar Nicholas II?

Yalta is a resort in Crimea, and the American delegation lived in the Livadia Palace itself during the talks. Stalin's and Churchill's teams were lodged in two other palaces along the coast.

Which medieval network of merchant guilds and market towns grew out of Lübeck in the late 1100s?

The Hanseatic League, also called the Hansa, came to take in nearly 200 settlements across eight modern-day countries, bound together for both trade and defence.

Which Russian city in an exclave between Poland and Lithuania was the German Königsberg until 1946?

Kaliningrad was renamed after the Soviet head of state Mikhail Kalinin. The philosopher Immanuel Kant is buried beside its cathedral.

Which Mediterranean capital is the last divided one in Europe, cut in two by a United Nations buffer zone?

Nicosia is crossed by the ceasefire line that separates the Turkish-controlled north of Cyprus from the south, a strip known as the Green Line.

Which language, spoken around Bilbao, is Europe's only isolate, unrelated to any other living tongue?

Basque is ringed by Romance languages yet related to none of them: it is the last survivor of the tongues spoken in Europe before Indo-European languages spread across it.

Which city on the River Meuse gave its name to the 1992 treaty that founded the European Union?

Maastricht's treaty did more than rename a club: it created a shared European citizenship and set out the eventual introduction of a single currency.

Which Greek site has monasteries on giant rock pillars, once reached by removable ladders or ropes?

Meteora means 'lofty' or 'elevated', a word related to meteor. Of the twenty-four monasteries built on the pillars, only six still function.

Which animal, Europe's heaviest wild land species, vanished from the wild in the 1920s before captive herds restored it?

The European bison, or wisent, lost its last wild lowland animals in the Białowieża Forest in 1921. Captive herds were bred up and released, and several thousand now live free.

Which 1648 settlement, signed in the cities of Osnabrück and Münster, ended the Thirty Years' War?

The Peace of Westphalia closed a war that killed between 4.5 and 8 million people. Many scholars trace the modern idea of state sovereignty to it, though some historians dispute that.

Which French painted cave, found by teenagers in 1940, has been closed to visitors since 1963?

Lascaux was shut because its condition was deteriorating fast: lichens and crystals had begun to appear on the walls. Visitors now tour replicas instead.

Which Balkan capital was the 1910 birthplace of Mother Teresa, long before her work in Calcutta?

Skopje knew Mother Teresa as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu; her middle name means 'flower bud'. She was baptised in the city the day after she was born.

Which Paris museum fills a former royal palace that began as a fortress under King Philip II?

The Louvre still shows remnants of the medieval fortress in its basement. Francis I turned the stronghold into the main residence of the French kings in 1546.

Which Rome landmark collects coins tossed over the shoulder, the money going to the charity Caritas?

The Trevi Fountain custom is to throw with the right hand over the left shoulder, back turned to the water. Taking the coins is illegal, though people regularly try.

Which capital is home to the brewery Arthur Guinness leased in 1759 on a 9,000-year contract?

Dublin's most famous lease cost Arthur Guinness just £45 a year, for a brewery that had been standing unused.