Site Map of a Quarantine Station 30-08- 1762, Zemun, today part of Belgrade, Serbia (Hungarian: Zimony; German: Semlin) 1 page, coloured drawing, manuscript on paper; 53 x 178,5 cm, scale: 20,7 cm = 55 Viennese fathom National Archives of Hungary HU-MNL-OL – S 12 – Div. XII – No. 29:3 The rate at which the Covid-19 coronavirus spread around the world reminds us how quickly and dramatically a disease can move beyond our control. The use of quarantine and social distancing to combat it echoed the ways in which humans have counteracted epidemics down through the ages.  In the early modern times, quarantine stations at borders served to prevent the spread of epidemics from one country to another. The site map presented here is of a quarantine station ( lazareto sporco ) in the surroundings of Zimony, in the year of 1762. The location of Zimony was strategically important: it lay on the banks of the Danube, just opposite Belgrade. The settlement was an important commercial c...