Travel Blog

Welcome to the TRANSROMANICA Travel Blog!

Here, we would like to share with you interesting stories, travel reports and links to articles and publications about journeys along our European Cultural Route!

You can find here the directions to blog posts related to our TRANSROMANICA Bloggers Trips, videos, guest articles, impressions from site visits and much more.

You can even discover articles in other languages.

Enjoy your virtual journey!

Cloister in the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos

Dream, then travel!

This campaign was invented by our friend Tea Gudek Snajdar who is the owner of the Culture Tourist Blog. Its aim is to inspire you when looking for a new destination during the COVID-19 crisis and where to travel next once its over. It invites you to think about a destination you might not have thought about at first hand and to give you a hint what you´re going to miss if you don´t see it for yourself.

Tea will discover our TRANSROMANICA sites in Slovakia and will take you on a journey to show you off the beaten track a region without overtourism, what makes Slovakia so special and what makes it definitely worth a visit once its safe to travel again!

You can go and visit her Blog here.

Exploring the TRANSROMANICA Sites in Slovakia

At the end of September Tea travelled in cooperation with TRANSROMANICA to Slovakia for the first time in her life and went on a journey of exploring the TRANSROMANICA sites in Slovakia. In her first article she writes about the fantastic medieval settings of TRANSROMANICA in Slovakia and what makes them so magical to her. By exploring that region without overtourism she gives you an impression about her experiences, what she liked most and what she didn´t expect from Slovakia.

You can read her full article here!

A Guide of Spišská Kapitula and Spiš Castle in Slovakia

In her second article she writes about the breathtaking area of Spišská Kapitula and Spišské Podhradie. While she was exploring this region she visited beautiful Spiš Castle, which is one of the best preserved medieval fortifications in Europe, and St. Martin´s Cathedral with its old library which ist located directly above the chapel. While reading her article you get an impression how magical this region still is and that it hasn´t lost its medieval character since the middle ages. What she liked most and what makes this region the perfect fit if you´re looking for a little medieval time out, she shares in her article.

You can read her full article here!

A TRANSROMANICA Week in Slovakia 

In this video you can go on an adventure with Tea alongside the beautiful highlight sites of TRANSROMANICA in Slovakia. Starting in the main Capital Bratislava she takes you on a journey from Bíňa through Diakovce to Spišská Kapitula. While her visit in Bíňa she met Anna Tuhárska from the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic and talked with her about the importance of this city in the middle ages. In Diakovce she visited the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in which she explored the remains of an old Benedictine monastery inside the church. The historic town of Spišská Kapitula which is surrounded by solid walls and still today able to enter only through one of its city gates was her last stop in Slovakia. Here she met the city archivist Monika Bizoňová with whom she explored St. Martin´s Cathedral and its hidden treasures.
Go and watch the video below.

IMAGINE! A FASCINATING JOURNEY OF THE MIND

While real travels remain to be up in the air, we would like to invite you on a journey of mind along TRANSROMANICA and all across Europe.

We are starting in Serbia, and will take you all the way to Portugal and Spain.

Let’s dream a bit for a couple of minutes every day and delve into a fascinating journey through space and time.

Serbia welcomes us with stunning views, passionate hospitality, outstanding cultural heritage and tenderly maintained traditions.

In Alba Iulia you can actually travel in time and discover the rich cultural heritage of an extraordinary place of great importance for Romanian and European history.

Spišská Kapitula is one of three TRANSROMANICA sites in Slovakia. Did you know that this ecclesiastic town is also referred to as the „Slovak Vatikan“? See for yourself what a discovery tour of the UNESCO World Heritage Site could look like.

For everyone who is looking for stunningly beautiful landscapes, activity and gusto in combination with a cultural discovery tour we highly recommend a journey to Carinthia. 

Places of art, movers and shakers of culture, monastic sites and cuisine – Don’t you think this calls for a discovery tour of Saxony-Anhalt and its “Straße der Romanik“?

Königslutter is a place that will surprise you in so many ways. It is situated at the edge of one of the largest and most beautiful beechwood forests in Northern Germany. It is home to one of Germany’s most important cultural monuments of the Romanesque. And its history is witnessed by one of the oldest trees in the country.

Did you know that Vezzolano Abbey is the heart of the Romanesque Churches Circuit in the Lower Monferrato Region in Piedmont? The network connects its unique masterpiece St. Mary of Vezzolano with a further 19 Romanesque heritage sites nestled in picturesque landscapes.

When in Pavia, go for a stroll through the city’s squares, avenues and the famous covered bridge, and you’ll be able to read its history! 

In the south of Burgundy, in the land of Charolais-Brionnais we can discover a real treasure. The great density of Romanesque or partly Romanesque churches and chapels accounted for the region to be referred to as the „Romanesque garden“. 

In Santo Domingo de Silos you can feel that the history of the town is strongly connected with that of the monastery. Unsurprisingly, the Romanesque gem is the place to visit. Today, it is still managed by Benedictine monks who are well-known for their celebration of Gregorian masses.

If you can’t get enough of medieval heritage, Zamora is the place to visit. With more than 20 well-preserved Romanesque buildings, the small town holds a fascinating legacy that can be witnessed and experienced with all senses. 

Sit back and join us on this inspiring journey for all senses! The “Rota do Românico” in the North of Portugal invites you to discover unique cultural and historical heritage forged in a picturesque landscape of green valleys and vineyards.  

Our virtual journey comes to an end in a region that is considered the home of the greatest concentration of rural Romanesque architecture in Europe – the Ribeira Sacra. Here, an outstanding legacy meets a great variety of outdoor activity and an unforgettable culinary experience.

We embarked on an imaginary journey across Europe. The fascinating heritage of the Romanesque era was the golden thread that led us all the way from Serbia in the east to the western edge of the continent in Spanish Galicia. Don’t you think it’s amazing how this legacy connects European regions across large distances that are home to a variety of cultures and traditions? By exploring the similarities and specific regional characteristics of our European cultural heritage, we can witness how the mobility of medieval societies contributed to the spread of knowledge and ideas and thus to the development of a common language of art and architecture – united in diversity.