Discover, share and pass on…

As part of the activities of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Route, the European Federation Saint Martin Cultural Centres is working on the development of the Via Sancti Martini in terms of European and sustainable development. The concept of a Green and Citizen Belt is being tested on part of the Via Sancti Martini (2,500 km) between Szombathely (the town where Saint Martin was born in Hungary) and Candes-Saint-Martin (the town where he died in France). The aim is to develop a 20km-wide Green and Citizen Belt (10km on each side of the route) along the Via Sancti Martini, promoting slow-paced, citizen-based tourism based on the value of Sharing. The Green and Citizen Belt can be walked in both directions: it is designed so that any section can be taken from one station to another, thereby helping to combat global warming through travel management. Walkers can choose sections of the route for a weekend, a week, ten days or a fortnight. It’s a real journey across Europe, discovering natural sites that are more confidential than the traditional major sites.

The aim of the Green and Citizen Belt is to encourage the emergence of practices that go beyond those commonly developed around hiking trails. The aim is to make this trail a path for the 21st century: exemplary, ethical, social and environmental… a place for locals and passers-by to share and exchange ideas around concrete projects that are structured in relation to people and nature. The European Federation Saint Martin Cultural Centres has initiated an experiment in France (in Touraine), duplicated in other regions and countries crossed by the Via Sancti Martini (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary…).

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