Via Transilvanica is Romania’ s longest hiking trail. It
\nconnects sites that have been included on UNESCO World Heritage List. Via
\nTransilvanica is also a vital connection between the local communities and various
\naspects of the heritage, including both built and natural legacy, but also the
\nimmaterial tradition. Via Transilvanica is rated as a most remarkable achievement
\nfor the Romanian Heritage, so much so that the European Commission granted Via Transilvanica
\nthe European Heritage Award 2023.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anna Szekely is Tasuleasa Social’s executive manager and
\nthe author of the Hiker’s Guide to Via Transilvanica. Anna told us it is Romania’s
\nfirst long-distance hiking trail, running through the entire Romanian territory,
\nnorth to south-west.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This long-distance hiking trail was created
\nin a bid to show Romania’s entire beauty and ethnic and cultural diversity. It
\nwas thought out in such a way that the hiker or the cyclist, or whoever comes
\nto visit Romania, should discover Romania the way it is. First of all, I’ve
\ntold that before and I will say it again, it is also very important that we, the
\nRomanians, rediscover the beauties of the country as we’re not aware of them
\njust as yet. We cut through 400 communities with Via Transilvanica. These communities are very diverse and along the way
\nwe get to know more than 18 ethnic groups. We’re speaking about a stunning
\ncultural and ethnic diversity. The heritage, we come across it everywhere, every
\nstep we take. Also, we cut through lots of rural areas, of which some are
\nalmost abandoned. There are villages on the brink of extinction, with a couple
\nof elderly people who are still there but we don’t know for how long. And yet, since Via Transilvanica crosses those
\nparticular regions, the youngsters are invited to return to those areas. The
\nrural areas have a tremendous diversity, we can find all sorts of traditions,
\nfood, we can have our fair share of very impressive culinary and cultural
\nexperiences. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the official site, at viatransilvanica.com,
\nhikers even have a blog of their own, they even have an interactive group on Facebook,
\nlabeled Transilvanica Official Group.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Anna Szekely:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There people open the
\npage and ask how they can take a hiking trail, they find their hiking companions,
\nthey also ask technical questions. There are very many useful pieces of
\ninformation, yet most of them can be found in the Hiker’s Guide they can access
\non our website. The guide is translated into five languages. I really love
\nspeaking about it, as I am the one who wrote it. Together with my women
\ncolleagues, we documented the entire trail and we compiled this guide where all
\nthe needed pieces of info can be found, for those who are into taking up a long-distance
\ntrail. Also, it is downloadable for free. As a rule, we redirect everybody to
\nthe blog, so they can get info on accommodation, on the trail, of the trail
\nmap, on the regions, on the areas we cross. We have a verbal description of
\nthat, but we also have lots of technical data that re very important for a
\ntrip. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Accessing the Hiker’s Blog, the tourist can find it easy to
\npick the segment of the trail he wants to take, as the trail is divided by
\ndays. So, a one, a two-day or a weekend-long hike can be planned, or a
\nfortnight-long, or even for the entire trail. Even the organizers themselves
\nanswer the more technical questions. With details on that, here is Tasuleasa
\nSocial’s executive manager and the Author of The Hikers’ Guide to Via Transilvanica,
\nAnna Szekely. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There we teach prospective hikers to plan
\ntheir hike in such a way that they should avoid getting lost, also planning
\ntheir overnight stays, we inform them on the places where springs can be found,
\nshops, or the emergency numbers. There are all sorts of very useful pieces of
\ninformation. And we did have a great many foreign hikers. We ‘ve had most of
\nthem this year. We have foreigners from all over the world: from Australia, from
\nCanada, from the United States of America, from Great Britain, from Germany,
\nSwitzerland, Spain, France. They have been very impressed with how the trail is
\nmarked. Let me also say one of our first foreign hikers was Christine
\nThurmer, who, two years ago, was a thru-hiker for the trail. She is one of the world’s
\nmost hiked women, with a record of more than 60,000 or 65,000 kilometres she walked
\naround the world, on long-distance trails. She was the first woman to have had a
\nthru-hike of this trail all by herself. She was the one who provided the greatest
\nand the best feedback, for us, saying that through the andesite milestones
\nmarking every kilometre and which have various sculptures, we practically have
\nthe world’s longest fine arts and sculptures exhibition. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Specifically, there are 1,400 such milestones marking a
\ntruly unusual hiking trail, and a full one, at that, in terms of the experience
\nwe can have, says Tasuleasa Social’s executive manager and the Author of The Hikers’
\nGuide to Via Transilvanica, Anna Szekely. The uniqueness of Via Transilvanca has
\nalso enjoyed recognition since it was declared the winner of one of the
\nEuropean Awards for European Heritage, the Europa Nostra Awards in 2023. The
\nAwarding ceremony was held in Venice in late September, with the vice president
\nof the European Commission, Margaritis Schinas,
\nattending. The public’s award was granted also in late September. So Via Transilvanica
\nwas the most highly-appreciated European heritage project, for which 27,000 people
\ncast their votes in favour. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It is
\na great honor for us to enjoy international recognition, with that coming from the
\nEuropean Commission itself, and we keep our hopes alive we can live up to everyone’s
\nexpectations. I invite anyone from abroad or from Romania to come over and become
\nfamiliar with the beauties of the country as they do their hiking, since it is
\none of the best and soundest ways to know the highs but also the lows of a
\ncountry. This the best way to know and love Romania. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Through its 1,400-kilometer-long trail, Via
\nTransilvanica crosses 400 de localities and 10 counties, being divided into
\nseven cultural historical regions. The trail connects 12 sites included on
\nUNESCO’s World Heritage List. The construction of Via Transilvanica lasted for
\nabout five years, being completed with the support of 8,000 volunteer workers. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Via Transilvanica<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":288713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43423],"tags":[44281,30904,40036,43994,44274],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-623388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travellers-guide","tag-beauty","tag-culture","tag-diversity","tag-hiking","tag-trail"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n