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We are pleased to announce that the first micro-project has been completed.
The Programme gives special support to projects with small budgets offering mainly non-investment, soft activities and promoting cooperation. Those are beloved in the whole borderland micro-projects. 74 of them selected in the 2nd Call for Proposals were approved by the JMC in April 2019. The project “Prince Sanguszko’s Family By-Ways Virtual Tour – let’s reveal new pages of shared Ukrainian and Polish history”, acronym VIRTOUR, was submitted under Thematic Objective Heritage and priority 1.1.
Project began implementation on 1st November 2019
and carried on its activities till 30th September 2020, despite the difficulties caused by the Covid-19 outbreak. The lead beneficiary was Non-government organisation "Volyn Regional Initiatives Centre" (UA), and the project partner was The Association of Local Governments of Euroregion Bug (PL).
Volyn Oblast and Lubelskie Voivodeship are rich in many tangible and intangible heritage. Although tourism is one of the strongest assets of the borderland, its potential remains untapped. The project addressed the challenge of insufficient knowledge of common heritage, which hinders cross-border cooperation and negatively affect the tourist flow. The overall aim of the project was to foster the use of cultural and historical heritage of the cross-border area to increase the visibility of its touristic potential and promote its attractiveness. As a part of the VIRTOUR project, a common, thematic, cross-border tourist route was developed, related to the history of Sanguszko Family, who held important administrative, political and military positions in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Rzeczpospolita, and was closely connected with Volyn and Lubelskie.
At the beginning of the project implementation, partners focused on the exploration of historical sources related to the life and work of the Sanguszko Family. The research was conducted by two historians – Polish and Ukrainian. Within two months, they explored numerous written sources about the life and activity of the Sanguszko princes on the territories of contemporary Ukraine and Poland. They established the exact locations that connect the princes with Volyn Oblast and Lubelskie Voivodeship, they identified the events associated with these places and their chronology. The results of the study were reflected in essays, followed by a workshop presenting the results and findings of the study. The participants discussed and assessed the collected materials and their reasoning. Basing on that, the concept of a tourist route was developed. Further, a list of places to be included in the tourist route was agreed and imported to the GIS/Google map. Each place bears a description of the event related to the Sanguszko Family and its graphic illustration. The route also provides additional information on the tourist infrastructure. All materials are available in Ukrainian, Polish and English in the form of QR codes. The mobile application was developed and is available for IOS and Android smartphones and tablets.
The map of the virtual tour is available at the following link:
To actively promote the tourist route among all population groups, a guide “Prince Sanguszko’s Family By-Ways” was prepared and published. It contains brief information on the history of the Family, places and events that took place there. It informs also about other tourist destinations worth visiting in the neighbourhood.
Beneath a guide “Prince Sanguszko’s Family By-Ways” to download.
As a conclusion of the project, at the beginning of September 2020, promotional tours through the places included in the virtual cross-border tourist route “Prince Sanguszko’s Family By-Ways” took place. To popularize the newly created tourist route, representatives of museum institutions, travel agencies, executive authorities, local governments and the media visited places associated with Sanguszko Family. Geographically, the route covers the Ukrainian-Polish borderland. During the tours, a video was produced highlighting the new tourist product. It was broadcasted on regional TV in Ukraine and Poland.
You can see the coverage of the promotional tour here: 
The video is available at the following links:
For more information about the project, check the links below:
https://www.pbu2020.eu/en/projects2020/572 http://www.criv.org.ua/uk https://www.facebook.com/VIRTOUR2020/
Using local resources and the latest IT trends, project partners created a high-class tourist website along with virtual tourist route, mobile application and tourist guide. Their ultimate result shall be increased in the number of tourists visiting the Ukrainian-Polish borderland, especially historical sites that so far remained little known or not known at all.
We encourage everyone to take the opportunity and full advantage of the created tourist product and simply go on a trip in the footsteps of the Sanguszko’s Family. We are looking forward to the next effects of the micro-projects’ implementation!
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