The final conference of the E-Routes project “Transformative Power of Travelling: From Research to Discovery Experience” (Golubac Public Library, 5-6 June 2025) brought to Serbia a completely new experience of professional gatherings for employees in culture, arts, education and tourism, primarily due to the interdisciplinary approach which is something entirely new for us when it comes to the phenomenon of travel as a multi-layered platform for research that encompasses cultural-educational, economic, social and of course touristic components, not excluding the experience of travel as a personal experience that transforms us and often motivates us toward new personal and professional explorations.
The conference gathered together over 50 registered participants from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Romania, Montenegro, Poland, Australia and Serbia contributing to the conference theme through their own specific aspects with their fields of expertise that proved complementary during the program. The presentations themselves were largely co-authored to a significant degree and represented collaborations between different fields of science and practice. Altogether 21 presentations were presented during the two days: 17 presentations accepted by the Program committee and four presentations by the project partners.
On the first day of the E-Routes conference in Golubac, the “Time Travel Routes Through Europe Exhibition” was opened. This exhibition will be displayed in all four partnering countries, and Golubac was the premiere location. The exhibition begins with the very concept and genesis of the project and continues through all phases and important, fruitful activities that were undertaken from 2022, when the project officially started, until this June.
The E-ROUTES team aimed to display vibrant moments and transfer the atmosphere of the project through these panels. The displayed content shows that the results of this project are diverse, interdisciplinary, and deeply inspired by the experience of travel, learning from diversity, and connections between past and present times and ways of traveling. Apart from the first three panels, which show common content for all countries as a joint concept and idea of our project team, each country has three panels specifically dedicated to the realization of each partner’s activities within working packages. The displayed results and the processes that preceded them are, in some cases, highlights or randomly selected moments when it was not possible to show everything due to format limitations.
This particular edition of the exhibition in Golubac is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Dejan Vukićević, former Serbian Library Association vice-president and E-ROUTES project core team member. Dejan worked at the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade until his early death and was instrumental in connecting the Serbian Library Association with the idea of the Creative Europe project. June 2nd would have been his 60th birthday, so the SLA used this opportunity as an in memoriam to our dear colleague.
Travel writing was one of the highlighted topics of the E-Routes conference in Golubac. We are proud to have had with us writers Nikola Popović, our E-ROUTES artist-in-residence participant, Viktor Lazić, and Ana Atanasković, and to present their work to the conference audience.
On the first day of the conference a boat-trip on the Danube river was organized for over 30 participants, between modern Golubac and the medieval fortress of Golubac. Social events of the second conference day included a guided tour to the Golubac Fortress and hiking from Dedine to Velika čuka with Turistička Organizacija Golubac. The post-conference excursion for the participants of the E-Routes conference included a visit to the archaeological site of the Lepenski Vir culture and the Eco-etno complex “Kapetan Mišin breg”.
The extraordinary team of the Golubac Public Library, from the beginning of the collaboration established during the Belgrade Book Fair in 2024 until the completion of the conference program, served as co-organizer with excellent professional contribution. By investing their experience, knowledge and creativity in the ideation, organization and realization of the conference together with the Serbian Library Association as coordinator of the E-ROUTES project and collaborators from the project team: ICARUS Croatia, National and University Library, MUSA – Museums of the Royal Palace of Portici, Library and Reading Room of the City of Prelog, Library of Matica Srpska and Icarus Italia APS, they enabled all plans, wishes and requirements to be not only fulfilled but also exceeded and additionally enriched with the specificities of the locality, the picturesque and renowned Golubac region.
We thank on behalf of the Serbian Library Association and the E-ROUTES project team our esteemed colleagues from Golubac with special gratitude to colleagues Milen Bogojević and Goran Stevanović.
