A dozen experts from Spain, Germany, Italy, Latvia and the Czech Republic will examine on September 29 what strategies can be implemented to revitalize Europe’s rural religious heritage. Through a digital meeting, professionals will exchange their experiences on how to face the challenges that threaten the survival of Europe’s valuable cultural heritage. Depopulation, limited accessibility and conservation sustainability seriously condition the future of a rural treasure of extraordinary value.

This is the 4th Interregional Experience Exchange Event (IEE), which this edition has been programmed under the title of Connecting heritage. The potential of cultural routes, greenways and slow mobility for the revitalization of rural religious heritage. According to the meeting program, cultural routes, greenways and slow mobility offer “valuable opportunities” to reconnect rural religious heritage sites with their communities and improve their management and preservation.

The event will start at 9.00 a.m. with a brief introduction by Chiara L.M. Occelli and Irene Ruiz Bazan, both from Politecnico di Torino. The first speech will be given by Bárbara Ruiz-Bejarano, coordinator of the Medinas Network and director of the Las Fuentes Foundation. The professor will speak for thirty minutes about the Medina Network and muslim-friendly tourism. The rest of the presentations, up to a total of thirteen, will continue until 1:00 p.m., when the conclusions will be addressed.

The meeting’s organizers argue that cultural routes “reinforce cultural identity and promote tourism” while greenways integrate heritage into broader ecological and tourism networks. All these strategies, according to the event’s program, have a positive impact in rural areas where “accessibility remains a major challenge”. The project identifies “good practices” that will contribute to the “preservation and revitalization of rural religious heritage”.