Middelpunt van Leuven

You can find monuments at all sorts of geographically notable points, from a country’s highest point to a continent’s most southwestern. While most of these markers are relatively recent, some date back much further. The midpoint marker of Leuven is one of the oldest in the world.

The Middelpunt van Leuven is an unassuming stone bollard with a zero carved into it that sits outside of a clothing store. Most sources will tell you that it dates back to 1975, when it was installed in this spot by Mannen van het jaar (Men of the Year), a club that groups its members by the number their birth year ends in. Specifically, this was a project by the Men of the ‘0’ (anyone born in a year that ended in zero: 1900, 1910, 1920, and so on). They felt that they had a poetic connection to the zero point. 

But the group did not make the stone or identify the location, they simply installed it in a new location after its original location a few dozen meters to the south became a road. 

The same group found historical photos of the stone, with the oldest one dating back to 1864. It is not known precisely how much older the stone is, or who originally placed it.