A Nordic–Baltic working group on cultural routes has completed a project “Cultural Routes for Heritage Cooperation and Capacity Building” that delivers practical materials to strengthen cultural route of the Council of Europe work across the region. A newly released practical guidebook introduces the Cultural Route of the Council of Europe Programme, outlines its benefits and opportunities and offers clear guidance on how cultural routes can be developed in practice.  

In addition to the guidebook, the project produced a workshop model with a set of questions to guide planning and brainstorming at different stages of cultural route development. The model is easy to customise, and it can be used, for example, in creating an action plan for the cultural route network. Both the guidebook and the workshop model are designed as a hands‑on tool for certified cultural routes of the Council of Europe as well as for new route initiatives. 

The working group behind the project operates under the Baltic Region Heritage Committee and brings together national Cultural Route of the Council of Europe programme coordinators from Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic countries. The project was led by the Finnish Heritage Agency and it was funded by the Nordic Culture Fund.