The Francigena way in Strasbourg

The Francigena way stops in Strasbourg. The millenary road that brought archbishop Sigeric from Rome to the Episcopal seat in Canterbury connects over 100 townships across Italy, Switzerland, France and the United Kingdom. The European Association of the Francigena Way is a point of reference for all pilgrims and for the lovers of culture and history, with its own website (www.viafrancigena.eu) and magazine “Via Francigena” in Italian and English. The latest issue was presented at the European Parliament during the plenary meeting of July 5-8.Institutions’ support. A group of MEPs, in agreement with the EU Commission and the Council of Europe (the path followed by Sigeric is included in the CoE Cultural itineraries) has asked EU funding for “the promotion of initiatives for cultural tourism”, which includes the Francigena Way, the Way of St. James and the Mont St. Michel Walks. The Francigena Way enjoys the support of Tourism Commissioner Antonio Tajani: “The communication adopted by the Commission past June 30 acknowledges the value of cultural and religious itineraries as tools for the diversification of tourist proposals – he declared -. These routes can become actual tourist packages”. For that reason, the European Day of Tourism (September 27) “will be dedicated to the cultural and religious routes”, added Commissioner Tajani. “To date, 29 cultural routes have been recognized with specific labelling after a strict selection”, explained Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Director General of Education, Culture and Heritage, Youth and Sport of the CoE. “Because of their intrinsic nature targeted at the promotion of culture, history, tangible and non-tangible local heritage, in the near future European tourism will be able to avail itself of the cultural itineraries of the Council” (for further information: www.coe.int) to “meet the present challenges”. Furthermore, the routes can become “an actual economic resource and an alternative tourist offer, marked by competitiveness in the market of international tourism”.Linking territory and peoples. Michel Thomas Penette, director of the European Institute for cultural Routes in Luxembourg, reflects on the overall value of the European Council Routes: “The purpose of the program is to connect European democracies, both spiritually and materially, by means of consolidated historical routes”. To this regard the Director points out the role played by similar initiatives after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, in 1989, also to “enhance shared memory of Eastern and Western Europe”. The president of the European Association of Francigena Ways, Massimo Tedeschi, commented on the meeting in Strasbourg: “The magazine’s presentation in one of the European capitals raised the awareness of Community institutions on the historical, identity and economic value of these routes, so they may promote their potential and innovation”. Rediscovering roots, building Europe. José Maria Ballester, Director General of Culture when the COE Cultural Routes program was launched, said: “Some twenty years ago the CoE promoted the Ways of St. James as European cultural routes, in the hope that it would trigger a network of itineraries across the continent, enabling contemporary citizens to appreciate the roads, spaces, traditions and ideas on which the civilization of our continent repose”. “Already at the time there were no doubts that this initiative would be positively welcomed by citizens. The Routes have taken the shape of an Erasmus cultural programme, a new way of conceiving history marked by the understanding that the construction of Europe isn’t recent but rather the result of dynamics that have succeeded one another and sedimented in time and space”. “Pilgrimage routes – including the Francigena Way, the Saint Martin of Tour route, the Saint-Michel Walk – are excellent examples, just like military itineraries are historical legacies which provide a multi-coloured palette where one can retrace one’s roots and learn more about others’ which, owing to the fact of living in a globalized society, are gradually becoming common roots”. These are the shared roots, Ballester continues, “on which the European building process can be founded and sustained”.