Discussion Papers 2008.
Visions and Strategies in the Carpathian Area (VASICA) 8-10. p.
2 The Carpathian region in the European space
The Carpathian Mountains are the Eastern wing of the Great Central Mountain
System of Europe, curving on the territory of eight Central and Eastern European
countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Romania
and Serbia). The Carpathians begin on the Danube near Bratislava. They surround
Transcarpathia and Transylvania in a large semicircle, sweeping towards the south-
west, and end on the southern bank of the Danube near the Iron Gate, in Serbia.
The total length of the Carpathians is over 1500 km, and the width of the mountain
chain varies between 12 km and 500 km. The greatest width of the Carpathians
corresponds with their highest altitudes. The system attains its greatest breadth in
the Transylvanian plateau and in the meridian of the Tatra group (the highest range
with Gerlachovský štít, at 2655 m in Slovak territory near the Polish border). It
covers an area of 190,000 km2, and, after the Alps, it is the most extensive moun-
tain system in Europe.
Although commonly referred to as a mountain change, the Carpathians do not
actually form an uninterrupted chain of mountains. Rather, they consist of several
orographically and geologically distinctive groups, presenting as great a structural
variety as the Alps. The Carpathians, which only at a few places attain an altitude
of over 2500 m, mostly lack bold peaks, extensive snow-fields, large glaciers, high
waterfalls, and numerous large lakes that are common in the Alps. No area of the
Carpathian range is covered with snow year-round, and there are no glaciers. The
Carpathian at their highest altitude are only as high as the Middle Region of the
Alps, with which they share a common appearance, climate and flora
The Alps and Carpathians share many – mostly economically disadvantageous
geographic and natural features:
− Both spaces as mountainous areas are less favoured for agricultural produc-
tion
− Both are geologically younger mountain ranges and therefore poorer in min-
eral wealth (in this respect, the endowment of the Carpathians is even some-
what better)
− Both are difficult to cross and hard to access.
− Both were peripheral areas in their respective countries, large sections of the
mountain ranges constituted borders between countries and were far from the
large urban centres.
Consequently, they shared – at least until the middle of the 19th century – the
phenomena of poverty, agricultural overpopulation and large-scale emigration,
characterising all mountainous areas of Europe at that time.
After the middle of the 19th century, however, development trends bifurcated
radically:
Illés, Iván : The Carpathian Region in the European Space.
In: Visions and Strategies in the Carpathian Area (VASICA)
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2008. 8-10. p. Discussion Papers, Special
THE CARPATHIAN REGION IN THE EUROPEAN SPACE
9
− The Alpine space could live up with its few advantages: central situation in
Europe, beautiful scenery, healthy conditions, tourism and winter sport op-
portunities and highly skilled craftsmanship.
− Most of the Carpathian regions could not live up with these opportunities or
could not exploit them fully. Even the better endowment with mineral wealth
became today a disadvantage in some areas, through the emergence of indus-
trial crisis areas and brown-field problems.
− Today the Alpine regions are the most advanced and richest regions within
rich countries (with a few exceptions).
− Today the Carpathian regions are mostly the poorest regions within poor
countries (with some exceptions)
− Obviously, diverging development trends are characteristic for the whole area
of Western and Eastern Europe, but in respect to the Alps and the Carpathi-
ans this divergence is even more stressed than elsewhere.
− Now, the main objective in the Carpathian area is to reverse this diverging
trend and to diminish the development gap between the two mountainous re-
gions in the middle of Europe.
2.1 The delineated “Carpathian Region”
For the purposes of the analysis and strategy building in the Carpathian Region, a
wider area has been delineated, as Carpathian programme area (Figure 1). This
delineated area comprises much larger area (470 thousand km2) than the area of the
Carpathian Mountains (190 thousand km2). It covers also the fore-lands of the
mountain chain. Furthermore, it is delineated according to the administrative
regions of the Carpathian area (NUTS2 regions in Austria, Poland and Ukraine,
NUTS3 regions in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Serbia) in order to
have a larger data base for analysis and to enable the participation of regional
governments with their whole administrative area in the project. According to this
delineation, the whole territory of Slovakia is regarded as part of the Carpathian
region (Table 1).
This larger area has a population of nearly 53 million, which is comparable to
the population size of Britain, France and Italy in Europe. It is about 7,6% of the
European population, and somewhat less than 5% of the European territory.
The breakdown of the Carpathian Region according to countries is the follow-
ing.
Illés, Iván : The Carpathian Region in the European Space.
In: Visions and Strategies in the Carpathian Area (VASICA)
Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies, 2008. 8-10. p. Discussion Papers, Special
10
VISIONS AND STRATEGIES IN THE CARPATHIAN AREA (VASICA)
Table 1
Main indicators of the Carpathian area (2004)
Country
Carpathian Carpathian
As a percentage of the
As a percentage of the
area km2
population
country’s
country’s
Carpathian Carpathian
thousands
area
population
area
population
Austria
23,558
3,373
28.1
41.6
5.3
6.3
Czech Republic
21,723
3,632
27.5
35.6
4.9
6.8
Hungary
54,322
7,286
58.3
72.9
12.2
13.6
Poland
45,514
10,138
14.6
26.3
10.2
18.9
Romania
165,013
13,920
69.5
62.1
36.9
26.0
Serbia
31,567
3,568
35.7
35.2
7.1
6.7
Slovakia
49,034
5,379
100.0
100.0
11.0
10.1
Ukraine
55,895
6,217
9.3
12.8
12.5
11.6
Total
446,626
53,513
28.4
34.9
100.0
100.0
Source: National statistical yearbooks.
Figure 1
Map of the Carpathian Development Region
Source: Author’s construction.