Author: Redazione AEVF

The European Association of the Via Francigena ways continues its series of LIVE broadcasts with the new adventure: a discovery of the Saint Olav Ways in Scandinavia.  Come join us on Tuesday 9 June at 18.00 on the EAVF Facebook page @ViaFrancigenaCulturalRoute to get to know St Olav.

The route of St. Olav, Norway’s patron, is a hiking and pilgrimage route, which crosses Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark. It has been certified as a European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in 2010.

This cultural route is Via Francigena’s sister route in the Northern Europe, which shares many similarities – slow travel, shared experience and pilgrimage, discovery of cultural heritage and traditions, beautiful landscapes and respect to nature. The St Olav Way today is a network of paths leading pilgrims to Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway.

Olav II Haraldsson, later known as St. Olav, was King of Norway from 1015 to 1028. After his death in 1030 he was declared a martyr and a saint. Pilgrims made their way through Scandinavia to reach Nidaros Cathedral – the burial place of St Olav for many centuries. Today St. Olav’s Way is one of the most picturesque path in Northern Europe, offering tranquillity of the untouched nature and the spirituality, through silent landscapes and endless hills. In the broadcast we will discover delicious Scandinavia food, tricks to quickly make a tent, suggestions on hostels and tips of best time to depart.

The Via Francigena has been cooperating with the St Olav Ways since the CERTO European project in 2012. Since then the routes have regular exchanges and best practice share.

The broadcast will feature Hans Morten, route manager and the head of the National Pilgrim’s Centre,   Ingeborg Collin Høgseth, director of the Nidaros Pilgrim Center in Trondheim and Chin-Yu Lee, a pilgrim and blogger, who has written St Olav guidebook.

Don’t miss your chance to discover a new route taking you to the deep North!

Tuesday 9 June at 18.00 on EAVF Facebook page @ViaFrancigenaCulturalRoute

More information:

• Saint Olav Ways Route https://www.acsow.org/en/frontpage/
• Council of Europe Cultural Routes https://www.coe.int/en/web/cultural-routes/home

The Facebook live broadcast on Friday 5 June will be dedicated to the Via Francigena going East on its way to Turkey and will be conducted in English.
The Via Francigena, one of the Peregrinationes Maiores (main pilgrimages) of medieval times, was a part of the routes network taking pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, Rome and Jerusalem. On its way to Jerusalem the Via Francigena crosses southern Italy, the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.

This geographic area is the centre of attention of our live broadcast. We will discover local and international routes there, their culture, traditions and gastronomy. We will also speak about projects carried out by our guests from the Turkish NGO Culture Routes Society and the study visit in the Apulia region along the Via Francigena in the South.

The live broadcast will host Kate Clow, founder of the renowned Lycian way and author of many guides of hiking routes in Turkey. She is a chairperson of the Turkish Culture Routes Society and a hiking enthusiast.

Hüseyin Eryurt, the project coordinator at the Culture Routes Society (CRS). Like many of us, Hü is also a keen traveller with a great deal of curiosity in archaeology and arts.

The live broadcast will also feature Elena Dubinina, an EAVF collaborator on cultural routes and international relations. This passionate hiker organised a study visit of the representatives of the Turkish municipalities along the Via Francigena in the South in spring 2019, which experience she will share during the emission.

Join us to discover new routes and countries and dive into the world of slow travel and shared experience on Friday 5 June at 18.00 (CET) on Facebook @ViaFrancigenaCulturalRoute.

The high-level consultation meeting on the topic of the UNESCO World Heritage candidacy of the Via Francigena route took place on 28 May 2020 by teleconference.

This first major international meeting between ministerial officials from four countries of the Via Francigena (Italy, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Holy See) was organized by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Activities and Tourism MIBACT and coordinated by Adele Cesi (Italy, MIBACT). It bought together Enid Williams (United Kingdom, Ministry of Culture) and Mike Collins (United Kingdom, Historic England), Oliver Martin (Switzerland, Federal Office of Culture), Alessandra Uncini and Maria Serlupi (Holy See, Vatican Museum).

The European Association of the Via Francigena ways EAVF was represented by the members of the EAVF technical group: Paola Falini, professor of urban planning at the University of Rome, Luca Bruschi, EAVF director, and Luca Faravelli, EAVF project manager. Since 2017 the EAVF technical group has been working on the UNESCO World Heritage candidacy of the Via Francigena, representing the Italian regions on behalf of the Tuscany Region and in collaboration with the Lombardy Region.

The meeting focused on the presentation of the Via Francigena European Framework Study from Canterbury to Rome, prepared by the EAVF. Within this study the individual national sections were illustrated, which can be separately submitted to the World Heritage List, nevertheless keeping the universal value of the route unquestionable.

Adele Cesi presented historic research and scientific methodology of the Framework Study and illustrated the work conducted from 2015 to the present day, starting from the communication between the MiBACT, the Tuscany Region and the EAVF, subsequent training of the scientific working group and sharing the application process with ICOMOS and UNESCO representatives in Paris in March 2018.

The successful cooperation resulted into the publication of the “Preliminary analysis for the candidacy of the Via Francigena to the UNESCO Word Heritage” of the Italian section, carried out in May 2018, and inclusion of the route in the Italian tentative list as a serial nomination in January 2019.

The work continued by the publication of the European Framework Study in preparation for the candidacy of the entire route from Canterbury to Rome. The latter dossier, presented to the MIBACT in the end of September 2019, suggests a division of the European section into ten thematic geographical areas.

The main topics discussed during the meeting were the definition of the Via Francigena, its universal value and identification criteria for over 500 properties indicated in the “Classification Study”.

The EAVF group presented a selection of cartographic maps from the English, French, Swiss and Italian sections, specifying the methodology adopted from a geographical, historical and cultural points of view.

The next meeting will take place on 24 June 2020.

More information on https://www.viefrancigene.org/en/UNESCO/

The European Association of the Via Francigena ways EAVF participate in the webinar organised by the Council of Europe Cultural Routes programme.

The teleconference “Covid-19 and the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe: Impacts and Responses” took place on 28 May. It involved 50 representatives of 38 certified Cultural Routes, the European Institute of Cultural Routes and the World Tourism Organization.

The webinar focused on assessment of the preliminary impacts of COVID-19 on the Cultural Routes and on the recovery strategy.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural and tourism sector is being felt across Europe and the world and Cultural Routes networks have been seriously impacted by the current situation. Many activities of the Cultural Routes were cancelled or postponed, including important events, conferences, statutory meetings and festivals.

However, facing a challenging situation, the routes found innovative ways to continue their work in digitalised format, conducting events by teleconferences. Many routes organised online webinars for their members and stakeholders, prepared digital courses, and capacity building as well as launched communication campaigns.

The EAVF, represented by Elena Dubinina, cultural routes and international relations advisor, shared associations’ best practices of Covid-19 recovery: its new communication plan. The communication plan called “Keep the experience alive” is focused on pilgrims and walkers on one hand and on the EAVF members on the other hand.

The targeted communication to pilgrims and walkers includes a series of weekly live broadcasts on Facebook and Instagram hosting inspirational writes, singers, photographers, and route’s enthusiasts under a motto “Travel from home with your heart”. This communication tactics has brought 5k new followers on social media with an average outreach of each video being about 15k people for the past 20 broadcasts.

The communication with EAVF public and private stakeholders is focused on clear information flow about national and regional directives as well as on the communication strategies for hospitality receptions and service providers during the Covid and post-Covid phases.

A representative of the World Tourism Organization presented the UNWTO recommendations for tourism recovery, which include:

• Improving information and data exchange,
• Launching innovative partnerships,
• Strengthening governance structure,
• Attracting new audience,
• Shifting from quantity to quality.

The EAVF, following its communication strategies, has been able to attract new followers and raised interest to the route and slow tourism. Via webinars and teleconferences it reinforced the network of public authorities – members of the association and reassured private stakeholders via participative approach in closed discussion groups.

The Via Francigena route is a great example of a resilient transborder destination capable to recover the health emergency and contribute to local communities and wellbeing of walkers and pilgrims en route.