I am Three cities whose name is made up of a single letterand which are therefore in all respects the cities with the shortest name in the world: TOfishing village in the Lofoten islands, Norway, whose name means “small river”; Then Ysmall locality in France, in the Department of Sums, and its name derives from the De Y family; Finally the city of Uone of the six municipalities of Pohnpei, the island of Micronesia. The primacy, therefore, is held by all threeon an equal footing!
Å, the city with the very short name in the Norway islands
Å i lofotenthat is å in the Lofoten, it is located in Norway, in the municipality of Moskenes, has about 100 inhabitants and, in Norwegian, means “small river”: Å is also the last letter from the alphabet Norvegesand, as well as being The last location reachable with the European road that crosses the islands and connects them to the mainland.
To å there are two museums: the Stuper Museum and the Norwegian museum of the fishing villagesand is dotted with typical red houses. In reality, the whole village can be considered a sort of “Living museum”: it is perfectly preserved and, being tourism the main source of revenues, the city is built precisely to allow you to find out how you lived in a Authentic place dedicated to fishing and the learning of the stoccafissitype of Nordic white cod that is precisely dried in a natural way, without preserving it in salt. In the Lofoten in particular, The stockfish is a very high quality product which, thanks to the particular climate of these islandscan precisely count on this natural drying.
Y, the city of the Ypsiloniens
In the North Francebetween Amiens and Saint-Forntin there is a very small village, which It has less than 100 inhabitants and that has a short name, indeed very short: Y. We are in the region of the Sumstheater of the battle with which, in 1916 in full First World Warthe British and the French tried to break through the enemy German lines.
Completely destroyed during the offensive, y today is still one inhabited citizen: its inhabitants – the ypsiloniens – They are few, and often struggle to enter the name of their location in the fields needed to have a package delivered, because the system invites you to “insert at least two characters”. Even if a local legend tells of a tree with a branch in the shape of Y From which the city took its name, in reality it is called for the family which, until 1500, reigned on those lands: the last “lord of y” whose trace is traced is Drouart de ythen of the dynasty remains only the – very short – name.
U, municipality in Micronesia
There Micronesia It is a region of Oceania, north of Papua New Guinea: right here, onPohnpei Islandthere is the Municipality of U Which, together with Y and å, holds the title of the city with the shortest name in the world. With just under 3,000 inhabitantsU extends for about 50 square km: we speak English and the local languageThe pohnpeianis considered official language. Micronesia is strongly connected to the United States from an economic point of view but remains very close to their traditions: Just think that the coins have still been valid stone!
