Prague Has One of the Most Accurate Times in Europe

Yes, you read that title right – even the time is better in Prague than most other cities in Europe.

As opposed to the various time zones in use across the world, solar time is the old-fashioned measurement of time-based on the position of the sun in the sky, employed for use in sundials and other sun-based measurements.

For instance: Poland and Spain, along with most other countries in Europe, both use Central European Time. That means that at 6:00 in the morning, the sun may be beaming in eastern Poland while it’s still pitch black in western Spain.

Central European Time covers such a wide zone that the perceptible difference in solar time between two areas in CET can be up to three hours.

But prime solar time accuracy – where CET best matches real, measurable solar time, runs right through the center of Europe.

That covers most of the Czech Republic, western Poland, Eastern Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, southern Italy, and parts of Sweden.

Eastern areas of the UK, including London, also match up with solar time since the country is in a different time zone than Spain and France despite being on the same longitude.

Check out the map of solar time accuracy below courtesy of Italian blogger Massimo Pietrobon.