The Landesverband Sachsen e.V.

Via Regia Begegnungsraum Landesverband Sachsen e.V. (Association Via Regia – Where People and Cultures Meet, Saxon branch) was founded in Görlitz in December 2003. Representatives of interest groups, municipalities, universities, churches, associations as well as individual activists have since been working together towards a common goal: to research the historical route of the Via Regia, also called High Road, and, at the same time, to give the Via Regia a new lease of life as a modern east-west connection in contemporary Europe.

Acting as a contact centre, we contribute to creating a network of collaboration partners along the Via Regia at a regional, national and international level. We co-operate closely with the European Centre for Culture and Information in Thuringia and with the association VIA REGIA – Culture for Europe.

Via Regia, the ancient European highway, links Paris with Kiew. In the west, it joins the Camino de Santiago, Europe’s pilgrims’ route to Santiago de Compostela. Following the Via Regia eastwards, one reaches Kiew, but not yet Europe’s border. The central European section of the Via Regia is called High Road and has left its mark in northern Saxony between Leipzig and Görlitz.

As the Via Regia Association’s Saxon Branch, we are actively engaged in gathering, processing and spreading information on the history and present of the road. We organise educational and cultural highlights, promote tourism, exchange research findings with partners elsewhere and participate in projects beyond Saxony’s borders. Through all of this, we hope to turn the ancient King’s Highway once again into a living stream of encounters between people and cultures, and thus perhaps into an ideal way for Europe.