{"id":10254,"date":"2024-10-30T15:27:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=10254"},"modified":"2024-10-30T15:28:13","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:28:13","slug":"no-the-labyrinth-in-batocina-is-not-the-largest-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2024\/10\/30\/no-the-labyrinth-in-batocina-is-not-the-largest-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"No, the Labyrinth in Batocina Is Not the Largest in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 23\/10\/2024; Author: Teodora Koledin<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

More than 20 web portals in Serbia have shared news in the last two and a half years about how the \u201clargest maze in Europe\u201d is located in the Serbian town of Batocina. This maze, called \u201cBora\u201d, is reported to cover<\/a> an area of 2.7 hectares, with its pathways totaling three and a half kilometers. In addition to media articles, a TikTok video<\/a> posted by the user \u201cbalkantriptv\u201d at the end of August has also attracted significant attention, amassing over half a million views so far.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most media outlets have stated in their headlines that the \u201cBora\u201d maze is \u201cthe largest in Europe\u201d, while Radio-Television of Vojvodina<\/a> and N1<\/a> highlight that it has \u201cthe longest path in Europe\u201d. We examined both claims and concluded that they are unfounded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the actual size of the \u201cBora\u201d maze?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As information about the \u201cBora\u201d maze has circulated in the media, there has been a misinterpretation of its actual area. The entire complex, which includes other segments of the amusement park in addition to the maze, spans 2.7 hectares, while the maze itself covers an area of 0.7 hectares. Specifically, Sputnjik accurately quoted the maze’s spokesperson in its article<\/a>, mentioning an area of 7,000 m\u00b2. This information was also shared by the web portals Objektiv<\/a>, 24sedam<\/a>, Politika<\/a>, iKragujevac<\/a>, Kompas info<\/a>, Teleporter<\/a> and Puls Sumadije<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some media outlets\u2014TU magazin<\/a>, Nova.rs<\/a>, Direktno.rs<\/a>, City magazin<\/a>, B92<\/a>, Dnevnik<\/a>, Vojvodina uzivo<\/a>, Informer<\/a> and Red portal<\/a> shared the disinformation that the entire maze covers 2.7 hectares, which is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is \u201cBora\u201d the largest maze in Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definitely not. The title of \u201clargest permanent maze made of trees\u201d in the Guinness World Records<\/a> has been held for years by the maze on the Danish island of Samso<\/a>, which occupies an area of six hectares. However, an even larger maze<\/a> \u2014 the Labirinto della Masone \u2014 created by Franco Maria Ricci, spans eight hectares and consists of 200,000 bamboo plants. Although it may seem confusing that a smaller maze ranks first in Guinness, it should be noted that bamboo is not considered a tree but rather a type of tall tropical grass<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media outlets Vojvodina uzivo<\/a>, Dnevnik<\/a>, and B92<\/a> highlighted in their headlines that \u201cBora\u201d is the \u201clargest living maze in Europe\u201d, which suggests that it is made from plants. Even in this case, it is not the largest, as both the Samso maze and Franco Maria Ricci’s maze are also created from living elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the \u201cBora\u201d maze differs from the previous two in that it is a \u201chedge maze\u201d, making it one of the largest in Europe in this category. Still, it is not the largest. For example, in the Hungarian town of Opustaszer, there is a hedge maze that has<\/a> the same length of walking paths as Bora but is even larger in area. Using Google Maps, it is possible to determine the surface area, which is over one hectare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Does \u201cBora\u201d have the longest path in Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It appears that the articles in the media are predominantly promotional in nature, and the specific claim about the \u201clongest path in Europe\u201d originated from the management of the maze itself, as the same information is mentioned on their website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We analyzed this question from two perspectives \u2014 overall and individual path lengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The total length of the paths in the Samso maze is slightly over five kilometers. If we consider a single path, the longest route in the Samso maze is<\/a> between two and a half and three kilometers, and it takes approximately one to one and a half hours to complete. According to the official website<\/a> of the maze in Batocina, it encompasses \u201cthree and a half kilometers of paths\u201d, which suggests that this is the total length of the paths. The same information is reported by Radio-television of Serbia in their text<\/a>, where the author explains that this maze has \u201cthree paths with a total length of three and a half kilometers\u201d. The time required to traverse the maze, which is somewhat shorter than in the case of the Samso maze \u2014 ranging from 45 minutes to one hour \u2014 also supports this conclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned in the previous section, the living maze located in Opustaszer, Hungary, also has<\/a> an identical path length of three and a half kilometers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on this information, we can conclude that the \u201cBora\u201d maze is neither the largest maze in Europe nor does it have the longest (individual or total) path lengths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This disinformation has been shared on the following web portals: Nova.rs<\/a>, City magazin<\/a>, RTS<\/a>, RTV<\/a>, Sputnjik<\/a>, Direktno.rs<\/a>, B92 (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>), Politika<\/a>, Alo<\/a>, Informer<\/a>, Dnevnik<\/a>, Vojvodina uzivo<\/a>, Objektiv (1<\/a>, 2<\/a>), Kurir<\/a>, Red portal.rs<\/a>, Prva<\/a>, N1<\/a>, 24sedam<\/a>, iKragujevac<\/a>, La vie en rose<\/a>, TU magazin<\/a>, RTV BN<\/a>, Kompas info<\/a>, Teleporter.rs<\/a>, PULS Sumadije<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the time this article was published on the SeeCheck website, portals Kurir, and City magazin had corrected the false statements in accordance with professional standards.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 23\/10\/2024; Author: Teodora Koledin More than 20 web portals in Serbia have shared news in the last two and a half years about how the \u201clargest maze in Europe\u201d is located in the Serbian town of Batocina. This maze, called \u201cBora\u201d, is reported to cover an area of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":10255,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[295,480,28],"class_list":["post-10254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-europe","tag-labyrinth","tag-serbia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10254"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10262,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10254\/revisions\/10262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}