Learn German: Der Bahnhof liegt hinter dem historischen Zentrum. - The train station is located behind the historic center.

It follows a definite article in the dative case. The preposition hinter triggers the dative case here, changing das Zentrum to dem Zentrum. In the dative case, any adjective that comes after a definite article takes an -en ending, regardless of whether the noun is masculine, feminine, or neuter.

hinter is a two-way preposition. Why does it take the dative case here instead of the accusative?

Two-way prepositions take the dative when they describe a fixed location, answering the question "where?" (wo?). Because the train station is simply located there and not moving toward a new destination, we use the dative case.

Why does the sentence use liegt instead of ist for "is located"?

While you can say ist, German strongly prefers positional verbs like liegen (to lie) or stehen (to stand) to describe where something is located. Broad, flat, or sprawling things like a train station, a city, or a region are usually described with liegen.

How do I know the gender of Zentrum from this sentence?