European Association Romea Strata (AERS)

On 5 May The Association of the Way of St James in Latvia became a member of the European Association Romea Strata (AERS). www.romeastrata.org

AERS was founded in 2018 by 30 founding members from Poland, Czech Republic, Austria and Italy with the aim of rediscovering and valorizing the immaterial and material spiritual and cultural heritage of the Romea Strata, the ancient pilgrimage route which crossed the regions from the Baltic Sea to Rome. The mission of AERS is to enhance the Romea Strata by promoting the knowledge of its religious, artistic, archaeological, architectural, literary and gastronomic heritage, and the beauty of its natural landscape, as well as to encourage, through the journey, a culture of gratuitousness and hospitality that can generate and create encounter and fruitful union between different people and cultures in Europe; contemporary cultural and artistic practice; cultural and educational exchanges; co-operation in research; cultural tourism and sustainable cultural development.
The objective of AERS is to prepare Romea Strata as Cultural Route of the Council of Europe to the European Institute of Cultural Routes.
The logo of the Romea Strata carries different meanings:
-the yellow arrow symbolizes the roads from the north-east to south-west toward Rome and Jerusalem, as well as the route pointing north-west to Santiago de Compostela;
-a modern take on the Aquileia cross, the city from where the Christianization of Middle Europe started.
Romea Strata will incorporate the Valka-Riga and Riga-Skaistkalne sections of the Way of St James on the territory of Latvia ( Camino Latvia).