The landscape has been changing over millenia but with increasing anthropogenic pressure, this change has accelerated, leading to a significant degradation of habitats and loss of their connectivity. Use of historical topographic maps, especially those produced from 19th century can show us how the (semi)natural habitats used to be spread and interconnected over different types of landscape. Such information can help us not only to understand what we have lost but also where we can target our efforts to preserve and restore degraded habitats and thus increase biodiversity. On the example of five diverse pilot regions from the Central Europe, we will show how the landscape has changed over the last 200 years. From seascape to highest peaks in Slovenia, from lakelands in Poland to mountains in Bavaria and Czechia, we will search what are the common traits of these changes and what are their differences.