An Italian researcher has created a map on Google, displaying all 276 landmarks across former Yugoslav States, named after the late President Josip Broz Tito.
Giorgio Comai’s project was borne out of a combination of curiosity and experimentation with street map data softwares, which resulted in producing several maps that plotted the location of Tito-based landmarks as well as their density by country.
More than half (176 in total) of the landmarks are located in Serbia, with Macedonia in second place (36) and Croatia in third (35). It was recently announced that Tito’s iconic military vessel, Galeb, would be turned into a museum in Rijeka, Croatia, to be opened sometime during 2019.
While the map shows no squares or streets named after Tito in Kosovo, there are several on the Italian island of Sardinia and Sicily. There are also Tito-based landmarks in Sao Paulo, New Delhi and Moscow not featured on the map.
In power until his death in 1980, Tito remains a particularly disputed and divisive figure across former Yugoslav states. This seemingly innocuous exercise in software experimentation perhaps provides us with a particularly insightful take on his geographical popularity today.
Source: Balkan Insight