Ludbreg

Ludbreg is a town located in north-western Croatia, in the upper Podravina region, in the eastern part of the Varaždin County, right where the picturesque slopes of the Kalnik become the tame Podravina plain.

Ludbreg earned its moniker after a 19th-century Swiss doctor who drew concentric circles with the town as its centre while playing around with a map. His geographical doodling made him realise that several prominent cities fell along his drawn lines and were at equal distances from Ludbreg. This discovery led him to declare that the Croatian town was, in fact, the centre of the world. Though it may be an inaccurate geographical calculation, Ludbreg still takes pride in its alleged place at the nucleus of it all. In its main square, a monument of colourful, concentric circles spread from a plaque representing the town like rings wrapped around a planet. Markers depicting other cities speckle the display, arranged as if orbiting around the central stone.