This point of view on the VIA REGIA shows that a active, conscient frequentation of the material, cultural and spiritual richness of the road, of its history and of its present, of its symbolical significance, can have a considerable cultural, economical and touristical importance.
O one hand, there is a connection between the VIA REGIA and the political idea of the “Weimar´s Triangle� project – the name of this project comes from the meeting of the foreign affairs ministers Roland Dumas (France), Hans Dietrich Genscher (Germany) and Krzysztof Skubiszewski (Poland) on August, the 28th, 1991 in Weimar. After this meeting, the idea, that those three countries could and should develop common interests about Europe´s future, was born. Based on the enforcement of the French-German-Polish relations as a future motor for the European integration, a series of intensive discussions began. In this context, Germany has a particular function – because of its history, its political interests and its geographical situation – and this function could be named bridge between Western and Eastern Europe. That´s why it is important to focus people´s attention on the existence of these agreements and it is also important that people perceive something of the advantages of partnerships on personal, local, regional and national levels.

On the second hand, what Ehrard Busek – ancient Austrian vice-chancellor and representative called to preside over the ÖVP (Austrian Popular Party), today president of the Intstitute for the Danube´s region and for Central Europe – said could also be added:

“There was no Europe between 1945 and 1989. The Western democratical part of Europe was connected far away, beyond the Atlantic Ocean, with the United States ; the Eastern part of it was under the domination of the Russion sovietic system... Since 1989, we´ve got the chance back to think of Europe as a continent and to use its diversity. Then, Europe´s quality changes... Europe has got the chance to be Europe again. However, that means that the accent moves from economy to culture, to the own being of the continent.�

In order to develop the idea of the VIA REGIA, a new intiative can be created and based on several activities, that already took place during these last years.

In 1990, the exhibition “Die Strasse (the road) – History and present of a commercial road� took place in Frankfurt am Main within the framework of the 750th fests of the Frankfurt´s fair; this exhibition was prepared since 1988 and was conceived at this time as a community project for the two Germany by the Institute for cultural anthropology and European ethnology in the Johann-Wolfgang-Goethe University. The exhibition followed the VIA REGIA between the fair cities of Frankfurt and Leipzig. There were also two catalogs that still are today the largest written documentation on the history of the VIA REGIA in this region.

The same year, during the last months of GRD existence, the association “VIA REGIA – the meeting centre� was founded in Görlitz – in this association, the cultural office of Görlitz/Zgorzelec now takes place, and this association works particularly in collaboration with partners of the German-Polish border region.

Since 1992, the European Center for Culture and Information in Thuringia (Europäisches Kultur- und Informationszentrum in Thüringen, EKT) published the magasin “VIA REGIA – Pages for international cultural communication�; until today, 71 of these “Pages� have already been published. These last years, the European Center has also realized a series of international projects, that are connected to the VIA REGIA idea, as the place of international communication in interest of intellectual and cultural development, oriented towards sincerity, tolerance and creativity in Europe.

1996 VIA REGIA ´96 – Begegnung mit Frankreich (Meeting with France)
1997 VIA REGIA ´97 – Blick nach Osten (Glance to the East)
1998 VIA REGIA ´98 – Wege durch Europa (Ways through Europe)
1999 VIA REGIA ´99 – Europa ist weiblich (Europe is female)
2000 VIA REGIA 2000 – Metamorphosen (Metamorphosis)
2001 VIA REGIA 2001 – Die Strasse des Lebens (The road of life)

Moreover, exhibitions with pictures and historic documents took place, within the central framework of the road VIA REGIA:

1997 – VIA REGIA – Königsstraße oder Hohe Straße: vom Westen in den Osten Europas (Royal road or High road: from West to the East of Europe)
1998 – VIA REGIA – Königsstraße oder Hohe Straße: Thüringer Impressionen von Kamen Pavlov (Royal road or High road: Thuringian impressions of Kamen Pavlov)
1999 – VIA REGIA – Goethes Straße zwischen Frankfurt und Leipzig (Goethe´s road between Frankfurt and Leipzig)

In 1998, the association “VIA REGIA – Culture for Europe� was founded.


Then, other associations and activities, working on the idea of the VIA REGIA at different levels, were created:

- in Königshain, the association “VIA REGIA – Association for the search of the royal road�

- in the association of the region of Königsbrück, the project of construction of a VIA REGIA model was created

- since 1998, in Ollendorf/Burg Lohra, artistic projects were realized

- since 1996, “VIAthea� theater projects were developped in the European town Görlitz/Zgorzelec, projects that are consciously connected to the tradition of this road

- the marketing agency Zeitreisen (Berlin) plans VIA REGIA events, and the travel agencies Erlebnisreisen M-V (Rostock) and Historicus (Jena) offer trips with themes related to the VIA REGIA

- in Dresden, in the youth evangelist parish office, was created along the historical road VIA REGIA in Saxony, Sachsen-Anhalt and Thuringia, following the tradition of the roads to Santiago de Compostella, an ecumeniacal pilgrim road, which goes at the present time from Görlitz to Vacha

- in several schools were are developped more or less large projects of research on different parts of the VIA REGIA, to be noticed is the initiative of the Markersdorf middle-school

- in the framework of the “European Urbanism� specialty, in the Bauhaus University in Weimar, the students research project “VIA REGIA – Revitalization of a historical route� was realized

- there were and there are TV programs and movie projects of the German first TV-channel ARD about the road VIA REGIA, its history and its course

Important impulsions for a continuing and deepened vision of the VIA REGIA Idea were given by:

- the experts conference “VIA REGIA, the High Road – Europe´s royal road� that took place in 2002 on the initiative of Professor Dr. Hans Dieter Blanek (Dresden) in the educational value of municipal policy Saxony association with the saxonian minister Horst Rasch
and by:

- the foundation of “VIA REGIA – the meeting center� associations; their goal must be to be a center of coordination et of contacts for representatives of regional and international interests about the theme VIA REGIA. The association in Saxony has just been founded.

That´s how the formation of an informal network, concentrated on the VIA REGIA, practically began.

On March, the 7th, 2003, the consultative comity VIA REGIA – Network, in the framework of the association VIA REGIA – Culture for Europe, was created.

As a matter of fact, one can consider that the course of the historic VIA REGIA changed with time, that new places have been added to it while the VIA REGIA road has been developped as the European East-West road thank to railroads and highways, and also that old road’s explorers discovered several inter-regional commercial roads, different but with the same designation, in Middle Europe; those facts can be important for the following thoughts about the VIA REGIA idea.

So some Hanse’s roads, for example the one going from Bremen to Brugge was named “strata regia�, and the one going from Stettin to Berlin/Magdeburg was named “regia via�. The researchers of Cesky Krumlov say that down the castle of the same name, there would have been also a VIA REGIA road from the Middle Ages. On the coast, northern of Pisa, there was a road with the same name that was very important in the Middle Ages, as it connected the Ligurian-Toskanian coast with the plain of Emilia. In the 18. and 19. centuries, important Italian and European people travelled on this road. One should remember that a few parts of this VIA REGIA were restaured and prepared for tourism.

With time, the East-West road that goes from Paris to Kiev, was of course first named as VIA REGIA, as “High� or “Royal Road� .

But the reference to the historic changes of this road, the name´s similarities or the resemblance with names of other European roads and the frequent use of transferedd meanings (Sigmund Freud: “The dream is the via regia to unconsciousness�, Werner Stangl: “The via regia of evaluation is the observation´s method�…) should be a stimulation for the future VIA REGIA network to stay open, based on personal responsibility and personal initiatives of partners that wouls have the same rights, and decentralized structured that may be efficient today through modern communication technologies as conventionnal central forms of organisation.

How such a network could work economically, how efficient results could be reached and not only separate and confused actions… That could be an exciting challenge.