Pan-European Picnic Memorial Place

Borderland memorial to the 1989 picnic that helped crack the Iron Curtain

The Pan-European Picnic Memorial Place marks the spot near Sopron where a 1989 peace demonstration briefly opened the Hungarian-Austrian border and hundreds of East Germans crossed west. It is one of those quiet places where the end of the Cold War becomes physical.

The memorial is simple, open, and best visited with some background in mind. Pair it with Sopron's old town or Fertő Lake for a day that moves between pretty borderland scenery and very recent European history.

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