On 7-8 October, the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) approved the certification of the European Route of Historic Gardens, bringing the programme to 40 certified Cultural Routes.

The European Route of Historic Gardens brings together historic gardens across Europe in order to promote and raise awareness of historic gardens, defined by the International Historic Gardens Committee as architectural and horticultural compositions showing intrinsic artistic and historical values.

Historic gardens of Europe are inextricably linked to places of great historical significance. Royal palaces, castles, towns, monasteries, nobility and bourgeois villas, that is, the residences and decision centres of historical personalities. This is why, in addition to their intrinsic artistic and natural values (botanical, landscape, ornamental, etc.), they always have a high historical value, by associating with the centres of political decision and social prestige of different nations and regions. The botanical parks and postcolonial gardens are linked to the European expansion around the World, during the Discoveries times (XV-XVII centuries) and the Colonialism period (XIX-XX centuries).

Find out more on the European Route of Historic Gardens, Cultural Route of the Council of Europe, at www.europeanhistoricgardens.eu.