The Danube, bluer than ever

The river, Europe’s ‘aorta’, crosses ten countries and both separates and unites East and West

Unlike most other rivers, the length of the Danube, the second longest river in Europe after the Volga, is calculated from the end rather than from the beginning – because an agreement has never been reached about where the river actually starts. Or to be more accurate, which of the two streams, the Breg and the Brigach, carries more water to the point where they converge and become the Danube. And thus the source of the river has been decided ex cathedra, obviously in a location close to where the Breg and the Brigach merge: the city of Donaueschingen, in the park of the former residence of the Fürstenberg princes.