On 15 October, Mr. Stefano DOMINIONI, Executive Secretary of the EPA on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and Director of European Institute of Cultural Routes was invited to meet with Mrs. Elisabeth UDOLF-STROBL, Federal Minister of Digital and Economic Affairs of Austria and President of the “Via Habsburg” Cultural Route of the Council of Europe in Vienna, Austria.

The meeting was an opportunity for a very constructive exchange of views on the current and future activities carried out by the “Via Habsburg”, Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.

Via Habsburg, certified by the Council of Europe in 2014, retraces the 800-year-old history of the Habsburgs: palaces, castles, magnificent churches, monasteries, abbeys and splendid museums show how this emblematic dynastic family shaped not only history but also art, transmitting the riches of the Renaissance and, at the time of its decline, provoking the modernist revolt.

Austria is crossed by 9 of the 38 Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe: European Mozart Ways, European Route of Jewish Heritage, TRANSROMANICA, European Cemeteries Route, Réseau Art Nouveau Network, Via Habsburg, Iron Curtain Trail, European Route of Industrial Heritage, Routes of Reformation.

Member since 2011, Austria is one of the founding States of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA). Mrs. Karin ZIMMER, Austrian Federal Chancellery, is Austria’s representative to the EPA Governing Board and held the post of Chair of the EPA Governing Board in 2019.