Metres above the Adriatic
elevation measure
Metres above the Adriatic (Italian: Metri sopra l'Adriatico, German: Meter über Adria, Serbo-Croatian: Metara iznad Jadrana) is the vertical datum used in Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Slovenia to measure elevation, referring to the average water level of the Adriatic Sea at the Sartorio mole in the Port of Trieste.
Gauge
The gauging station in the Port of Trieste was established in 1875 by the local observatory run by the military geographical institute of the Austro-Hungarian Army. The average water surface elevation at Molo Sartorio became the datum valid for the entire Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Although the former Yugoslav countries still use it, after World War II the Eastern Bloc successor states of Austria-Hungary such as Hungary and Czechoslovakia switched to the Kronstadt Gauge of the Baltic Sea, which is 0.6747 m (2.214 ft) higher.
For Austria the 1875 gauge is used as the datum, whereas the countries of the former Yugoslavia use the 1900 gauge (nadmorska visina, m/nv). In Albania (normal-orthometric height) heights are also referred to as "metres above the Adriatic," but a specific tide gauge in the port of Durrës is used.
Abbreviation
The individual countries using this datum abbreviate it in different ways depending on their local language, as follows:
Austria: m ü. Adria, m.ü.A. or müA, colloquially known as Seehöhe or Adriahöhe
Hungary: mAf from méter Adria felett
Former Yugoslavian states: m. i. J. from Metara iznad Jadrana
'Metres above the Adriatic' may be abbreviated in English to m.a.A.
Height differences between Austria and neighbouring countries
In Austria orthometric height is used, while its neighbours use other height systems, which leads to differences.
“Metres above the Adriatic” enters the record as elevation measure. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Metres, above and Adriatic can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23202. Authority coordinates are 45.647, 13.760. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1875 and 1900.
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This entry incorporates text from “Metres above the Adriatic” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.