The Directorate of Aukštaitija Protected Areas, together with its Latvian partner, the Jēkabpils county municipality, implements the project "Creation of international tourist route "The Struve Geodetic Arc" No. LLI-477, acronym - Struve. The project is financed under the first grant of Latvia and Lithuania for 2014-2020. the priority of the cross-border cooperation program (sustainable and clean environment). 2014-2020 Interreg V-A Latvia-Lithuania cross-border cooperation programme aims to contribute to the sustainable development of the program territory by helping it become an attractive and competitive place to live, work and visit.

Project will develop cognitive tourism in Zemgale and Utena regions by using The Struve geodetic arc points – a unique technological structure of XIX century that helped to determine the exact size and shape of the world and is being inscribed on the UNESCO World heritage list. There are 16 Struve geodetic arc points in Latvia of which two are on the UNESCO World heritage list, 18 Struve station points are in Lithuania three of which are nominated as UNESCO heritage. This is the potential not yet used for tourism, neither in the regions nor in Sala, Jēkabpils and Anykščiai municipalities. The Struve geodetic arc points are not easy to access, there are no modern exhibitions telling the story in an attractive way. Very few people even in local municipalities can tell what the Struve geodetic arc is. Thus the project aims at improving tourism infrastructure of the Struve geodetic arc points in Latvia and Lithuania, to make the cultural heritage accessible and attractive to be included into the cross border and international tourism routes.

The history of the scientific achievements will be told in a modern and interactive way. Newly developed route will be widely promoted nationally and internationally with specific focus on Estonia and Finland in order to attract more visitors to the reconstructed sites and to promote the Struve Geodetic Arc as a unique technological structure of the UNESCO World heritage list stretching through 10 countries.

Infrastructure of three Struve geodetic arc points (Jēkabpils, Daborkalns, Storiai) will be improved, exhibition will be developed as well as promotional movie. Measures will be taken to find partners in Estonia and Finland to link all Struve Geodetic Arc points in a common tourism site and to popularize other points.

Leaflets for a tourism campaign and commemorative souvenirs will be made, advertising campaign launched to attract visitors to the sites. Visitors will be invited to travel to the Struve sites in 4 countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Estonia) to collect the site specific stamps and get special Struve souvenirs. In the Struve sites of Latvia and Lithuania the visitors will be welcomed by project trained tourism professionals. Sustainable tourism and marketing training will help tourism professionals of the involved municipalities to continue promotion of the route and to involve other countries with Struve points in the future.

Project will present achievements and discoveries of science in accessible, interesting, understandable, attractive and modern way.

Project "Creation of the international tourist route "The Struve Geodetic Arc"" no. LLI-477. Start of implementation - July 1, 2020 end - June 30, 2023. The total project budget is EUR 850,509.70 (85% of the project costs, EUR 722,933.24, will be covered by the program funds). The part of the budget belonging to the Directorate of Aukštaitija Protected Areas: EUR 348,552.04 EUR (296,269.23 is financed by the program funds).

The lead partner of the project is the Jekabpils (Latvian Jēkabpils) county municipality.

This article was prepared with the financial support of the European Union. The project partner Directorate of Aukštaitija Protected Areas of is responsible for the content of this article. Under no circumstances can it be considered to reflect the opinion of the European Union. 

2014-2020 Interreg V-A Latvia-Lithuania cross border cooperation programme aims to contribute to the sustainable development of the program territory by helping it become an attractive and competitive place to live, work and visit.

Programme Page: https://latlit.eu/ 

Official EU website: https://europa.eu/

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