There are two southern island nations with their capitals that politically belong to Europe, but one could place them geographically in Africa and Middle East (Asia).
If this is about mainland Europe, then Athens would be the southernmost capital city in Europe. But, there is also Malta and Cyprus, both island countries that belong to Europe and to European Union as well.
So Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus is indeed the southernmost capital city in Europe. Valletta, the capital of Malta is at the second place.
These three cities are marked in the interactive Google map below. You can zoom in to see details for each of them:
Nicosia
This capital of Cyprus has been mentioned in several posts here in the site. You will find it also in my list of the oldest capitals in Europe, and in the capitals that are in fact two capitals in one.
But in the context of this post, only its coordinates matter, so they are 35°10′21″N, 33°21′54″E. The top picture above shows this city.
In this video you can see more about this city and the sad fact that it remains divided, please have a look:
Valletta
The coordinates of this city are 35°53′54″N, 14°30′45″E. You can compare this with the numbers for Nicosia given above, and check also the map to realize that it is indeed a bit more to the north than the capital of Cyprus.
But it is interesting that both of these cities are more to the south than Tunis the capital of Tunisia with its coordinates of 36°48′23″N, 10°10′54″E, and Algiers the capital of Algeria with its 36°45′14″N, 3°3′32″E. Both of these cities are in Africa of course.
This is a relatively small city for European capitals, and this applies to both its physical size and population. According to data that are available on Wikipedia, the city is quite young, at least for European capitals. Note that Nicosia has a history that is measured in thousands of years.
Valletta as a city was built by the Order of Saint John and it all started in 1524. The most important buildings in the city were constructed by the Knights Hospitaller.
The name of the city comes from Jean Parisot de Valette, who defended the island from an Ottoman invasion during the Great Siege of Malta.
Note that this city is also in my list of the warmest capitals in Europe, and it is on the second place there.
In 1980, Valetta was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It appears that this is also the sunniest city in Europe. Please see more in this video:
So these are the southernmost capital cities in Europe, both in the Mediterranean area as expected. I mentioned Athens, so this would be the third of course, and you have seen its position in the map above, its coordinates are 37°59′03″N, 23°43′41″E. The fourth southernmost European capital is Lisbon, the capital of Portugal.
But can you guess what the world’s most southern capital is? If not, just follow the link to find out.
Please let me know if you have any question or suggestion about capitals in the world that you wish to be presented here in the site. There is a comment box below for this purpose.
Bookmark this site and keep as a reference, it is all about capitals and you will always have new texts added here. Thank you for reading and have a nice day.