Coordinates: 48 13 N 16 22 E
Area: 7.5 sq mi (19.3 sq km)
Having seriously played the sport for ten years in my youth, part of this time with a close friend from Belgium, I reached adulthood as a rarefied type of American: a soccer fan. By which I mean that I still haven’t figured out what all of those baseball statistics mean. But I am looking forward to June 29th when two teams will meet in Ernst Happel Stadium to decide the 2008 European Football Championship. Located in Leopoldstadt, one of 23 districts in Vienna, the stadium sits on an island created by the Danube Canal and the river of the same name. Historically this part of Austria’s capital contained a large Jewish population (Freud lived here), and because of this, gained the nickname “Matzoh Island.” A number of tourist attractions occupy the island today, including Wurstelprater, an amusement park, as well as the Republic of Kugelmugel, a micronation founded in 1984.
Ben Keene is the editor of Oxford Atlas of the World. Check out some of his previous places of the week.