Sacral and cultural tourism development

The represented region Latgale, which covers the Eastern part of Latvia, historically has been strongly influenced by different nations. For example, Polish influence dates back as far as 16th century resulting in strong catholic roots, merge of traditions, cuisine, even the origin of local names of people and places. The region basically is multinational, however with its own distinct language (original dialect of Latvian, called also the Latgalian language). The territory of our LAG is located in the very heart of the region, and it is a treasury of different cultural heritage objects, incl. sacral objects (churches and monasteries with adjacent territories) and ancient crafts (such as black pottery). There are approximately 37 churches and more than 30 ancient craftsmen in the LAG's territory alone. Several unique sacral architecture objects have been renewed, upgraded, reconstructed, however, many of them are unknown to a foreign tourist. So there originated an idea to develop sacral and cultural tourism in the region and bring particular cultural heritage objects to the surface as international tourism destinations and attractions by organising a chain of experience exchange visits.