Saint Olav’s Mainland Route

The largest inter-territorial cooperation project in Finland for 2014-2020, aims to promote cultural heritage as a vehicle for tourism development.

Full Project description EN PDF icon (358.19 KB)
Project summary: 

The St. Olav Ways – otherwise known as “the pilgrim paths to Trondheim” - are a network of routes through Sweden and Norway that are certified by the Council of Europe. A project to extend the network eastwards, from the Atlantic coast through Finland towards the Russian border, has resulted in an inter-territorial LEADER project. 

The project activities have included mapping all of the Saint Olav-related historical sites in Finland; organising info events in each participating LEADER area; establishing contacts with Norwegian and Swedish route operators; as well as developing marketing plans and mobile applications.

Project results: 

Hundreds of people from different sectors took part at the eight territorial info events which were organised by the project.

Some good publicity – in the form of television coverage - allowed some project objectives to be implemented earlier than originally scheduled.

For both religious and non-religious visitors, the route offers new opportunities for mindfulness and spiritualism: an emerging trend of global tourism.