• the Polish-Lithuanian union of Lublin in 1569 marked the beginning of centuries of struggle between Poland and Russia over Central and Eastern Europe?
• the Church of St. Elisabeth in Marburg was one of the earliest purely Gothic structures in Central Europe and served as the model for the Cologne Cathedral?
• the Holy Trinity Column in Olomouc was inscribed on the World Heritage List as "one of the most exceptional examples of the apogee of Central European Baroque artistic expression"?
• the Michelsberg culture of Neolithic Central Europe is known for its tulip-shaped pottery (pictured)?
• despite much preparation by Prussia, Toruń Fortress, one of the largest defence complexes in Central and Eastern Europe, did not play a significant role in World War I?
• Dactylosaurus lived in the Middle Triassic period during the Anisian faunal stage of central Europe?
• U.S. Ambassador Charles E. Bohlen received the secret protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which contained an understanding between Hitler and Stalin to split Central Europe, from German diplomat Hans von Herwarth?
• Lake Balaton (pictured), a popular tourist attraction in Hungary, is the largest freshwater lake in Central Europe?
• Herbert Kisza owns one of the largest private one-artist galleries in Central Europe in Kadaň, Czech Republic?
• Luník IX, a borough in Košice, Slovakia, although originally built for army and police officers, now houses the largest Roma community in Central Europe?
• 2006 was the 650th anniversary of the 1356 Basel earthquake, the most significant earthquake to have occurred in Central Europe in recorded history?

Facts on topics related to Central Europe

Europe

• "Pink Fairhead" is a common name for Calocybe carnea, a small pink mushroom of grassy areas in Europe and North America?
• "experienced Euro watcher" Tony Connelly wrote Don't Mention the Wars: A Journey Through European Stereotypes, examining the stereotypical views of Europeans?
• blues singer Jesse Fortune, better known as the "Fortune Tellin' Man," passed on performing in Europe because he did not want to disappoint customers at his Chicago barbershop?
• Brazil has recently opened a commercial fishery targeting the Colares stingray, for export to Europe?
• Canadian-born Jim Koleff spent three decades in Europe as an ice hockey player, coach and manager after telling coach Dave Chambers that he would play in Italy for one year?
• Dorothea Mackellar wrote her patriotic Australian poem "My Country", which contains the line I love a sunburnt country, while she was homesick when travelling in Europe?
• Europe's most powerful supercomputer, MareNostrum, will be used in human genome research, protein research, weather forecasting and the design of new drugs?
• French geography professor Henri Enjalbert theorized that Albania, the Ionian islands and southern Dalmatia were the only European regions with grapevines following the last Ice Age?
• French Army soldiers killed between 15,000 and 45,000 Algerian civilians in the Setif massacre of May 8, 1945, the same day as V-E day in Europe?
• Germany is the European leader in Christmas tree production?

Eurozone

• only six of the 12 Eurozone member states have not yet issued €2 commemorative coins, and only four have no plans to do so by 2006?

Balkans

• Mayotte situated in the Indian Ocean, Kosovo and Montenegro in the Balkans, and Saint Pierre and Miquelon, off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, have adopted the euro as their national currency?
• cross stitches are part of the embroidery traditions of the Balkans, Middle East, Afghanistan, Colonial America and Victorian England?
• during the Gothic War in the 4th century, the Goths killed a Roman Emperor, destroyed a Roman army and laid waste large tracts of the Roman Balkans?
• reforms enacted by Eleftherios Venizelos, after the 1909 Goudi coup helped bring him to power, largely forestalled the development of strong socialist and agrarian movements then seen elsewhere in the Balkans?