{"id":36901,"date":"2020-02-17T12:47:25","date_gmt":"2020-02-17T11:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.riksantikvaren.no\/verdensarv\/struves-meridianbue\/"},"modified":"2025-05-08T12:33:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:33:51","slug":"struves-meridianbue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/world-heritage\/four-points-on-the-struve-geodetic-arc\/","title":{"rendered":"Four points on the Struve Geodetic Arc"},"content":{"rendered":"

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World heritage<\/span><\/p>

Four points on the Struve Geodetic Arc<\/h1><\/div>

The Struve Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through 10 countries and over 2,820 km.<\/p><\/div>[\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″]\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\"Photo<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t
Struve at night.<\/strong> The monument in Hammerfest marks the northernmost mainland point on the Struve Geodetic Arc. Foto: Zenisk<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t<\/figure>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of the planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries, and of collaboration between monarchs for a scientific cause. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The listed site includes 34 of the original station points, with different markings, i.e. a drilled hole in rock, iron cross, cairns, or built obelisks.<\/p>\n

The Struve Geodetic Arc was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2005.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Outstanding Universal Value<\/h2>\n

Brief synthesis<\/h3>\n

The determination of the size and shape of the world was one of the most important problems of natural philosophy since at least the 4th century B.C. The development, in the 16th century, of a measurement system called \u201ctriangulation\u201d improved the ability to determine the size and shape of the world. In this system, long chains of triangles were measured, creating arcs that stretched along hundreds and thousands of kilometres.<\/p>\n

The Struve Geodetic Arc is a chain of survey triangulations stretching from Hammerfest in Norway to the Black Sea, through ten countries and over 2,820 km. These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by several scientists (surveyors) under leadership of the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian. This helped to establish the exact size and shape of our planet and marked an important step in the development of earth sciences and topographic mapping. It is an extraordinary example of the development of sciences and of collaboration among scientists from different countries, as well as monarchs, for a common scientific cause.<\/p>\n

Prior to the Struve Geodetic Arc, an arc of about 2,400 km had been measured in India by Lambton and Everest (completed in 1845), and a shorter arc in Lithuania by Carl Tenner. Struve, who was working at the Dorpat University (currently University of Tartu in Estonia), decided that he would establish an arc following a line of longitude (meridian) passing through the observatory of the university. The new long arc, later to be known as the Struve Geodetic Arc, was eventually created by connecting earlier, shorter arcs to the southern one measured by Tenner, and their extension to the north and south. The arc thus covered a line connecting Fuglen\u00e6s, near Hammerfest at the Arctic Ocean, with Staro-Nekrassowka, near Ismail, on the Black Sea shores, along more than 2,800 km. The original arc consisted of 258 main triangles with 265 main station points. The inscribed property includes 34 of the original station points established by Struve and his colleagues between 1816 and 1851 \u2013 four points in Norway, four in Sweden, six in Finland, two in Russia, three in Estonia, two in Latvia, three in Lithuania, five in Belarus, one in Moldova and four in Ukraine. Other preserved sites of the Arc are protected nationally.<\/p>\n

These marks take different forms: small holes drilled in rock surfaces, and sometimes filled with lead; cross-shaped engraved marks on rock surfaces; solid stone or brick with a marker inset; rock structures (cairns) with a central stone or brick marked by a drilled hole; individual bricks; as well as especially constructed ‘monuments’ to commemorate the point and the arc.<\/p>\n

The Struve Geodetic Arc is an extraordinary example of the interchange of human values in the form of international scientific collaboration, as well as an outstanding example of a technological ensemble.<\/p>\n

Criterion (ii):\u00a0The first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian, helping in the establishment of the exact size and shape of the world exhibits an important step in the development of earth sciences. It is also an extraordinary example for interchange of human values in the form of scientific collaboration among scientists from different countries. It is at the same time an example for collaboration between monarchs of different powers, for a scientific cause.<\/p>\n

Criterion (iv):\u00a0The Struve Geodetic Arc is undoubtedly an outstanding example of a technological ensemble – presenting the triangulation points of the measuring of the meridian, being the non-movable and non-tangible part of the measuring technology.<\/p>\n

Criterion (vi):\u00a0The measuring of the arc and its results are directly associated with humans wondering about their world, its shape and size. It is linked with Sir Isaac Newton\u2019s theory that the world is not an exact sphere.[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

See photos of the Struve Geodetic Arc<\/h2>\n

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\"The<\/a>
Survey point on the Struve Geodetic Arc in Fuglenes.<\/strong> Four of the survey points on the Struve Geodetic Arc, inscribed on UNESCO\u2019s World Heritage List in 2005, are located in the Finnmark region. The photo shows the survey point at Fuglenes in Hammerfest, erected in 1854.
Foto:<\/strong> Mittet, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage<\/div><\/div>
\"The<\/a>
The Struve Geodetic Arc.<\/strong> The monument outside Hammerfest was erected in 1854. The surrounding enclosure was built a few years later.
Foto:<\/strong> The archives of the Directorate for Cultural Heritage.<\/div><\/div>
\"The<\/a>
Map of the Struve Geodetic Arc.<\/strong> The 34 red dots on the map indicate the World Heritage sites.
Foto:<\/strong> Illustration by Historicair (CC-BY-SA) via Wikimedia Commons<\/div><\/div>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t
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Integrity<\/h3>\n

The inscribed property consists of 34 components, which in total comprise an area of 0.6 ha, with buffer zones amounting to a total of 11 ha. All components of the Struve Geodetic Arc are linked to one chain and a number of the Arc sites belong to national state geodetic reference networks that confer integrity even with the geodetic measurements processed today.<\/p>\n

Authenticity<\/h3>\n

The inscribed components of the property have special characteristics and significance on a technological and scientific level. All points are maintained in their original location and changes are limited to some later constructions marking the locations.[\/vc_column_text][vc_gmaps link=”#E-8_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” title=”Explore the Hammerfest triangulation point”][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

Protection and management requirements<\/h3>\n

For the inscription of the Struve Geodetic Arc, the ten countries involved collaborated in locating and investigating the sites of historical measurements by using available geodetic observation data and by means of the recent measurement methods as well as satellite geodesy. Upon identification of the component parts, each State Party provided legal protection in accordance with its national frameworks, which in practice entails that some points are covered by laws protecting geodetic points and also by laws for the protection of cultural heritage.<\/p>\n

At the national level, each State authority, usually the national mapping authority with the involvement of local administrative authorities, is responsible for the conservation and management of the Struve Geodetic Arc. At the international level, management is the responsibility of the Coordinating Committee, which meets every other year and is run according to management mechanisms agreed upon by all ten countries.<\/p>\n

Based on the resolutions of the Coordinating Committee, national representative organizations actively promote the Struve Geodetic Arc via different tasks, such as the producing post stamps and envelopes (completed by Belarus, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Sweden, Ukraine); making promotional movies and educational leaflets, books and articles; preparing exhibitions; translating documentation; restoring geodetic instruments and other materials, and even minting commemorative coins for the Struve Geodetic Arc (Belarus, Moldova).[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_gmaps link=”#E-8_JTNDaWZyYW1lJTIwc3JjJTNEJTIyaHR0cHMlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbSUyRm1hcHMlMkZkJTJGdSUyRjElMkZlbWJlZCUzRm1pZCUzRDF0U243dGpRSFRjMHI4WWJ2eFc0OFpmeDhueHpzNmt5OSUyMiUyMHdpZHRoJTNEJTIyNjQwJTIyJTIwaGVpZ2h0JTNEJTIyNDgwJTIyJTNFJTNDJTJGaWZyYW1lJTNF”]

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Useful links<\/h2>\n

Read more about the Struve Geodetic Arc on the website of the Norwegian Mapping and Cadastre Authority<\/a><\/p><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]These are points of a survey, carried out between 1816 and 1855 by the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, which represented the first accurate measuring of a long segment of a meridian….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":36492,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","algolia_no_indexing":false,"boosted":0},"coauthors":[495,444],"class_list":["post-36901","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36901"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85670,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36901\/revisions\/85670"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/riksantikvaren.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=36901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}