The Sensory Landscape of Hygeia in Europe
Spices: taste, smell and memory
ITALY • ROMANIA • SPAIN
The Sensory Landscapes of Hygeia in Europe. Act I: Spices (taste, smell & memory) ACRONYM: Hygeia Legacy-Spices is a European Cross-Frontier Cooperation Project within the framework of the European Heritage Days joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Union EAC-2023-0345 – BH4938 – PMM 3605.
The project is led by Aromas Itinerarium Salutis Association, responsible for the European Route of Historic Pharmacies and Medicinal Gardens, a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.
Funded by the European Heritage Days joint action of the Council of Europe and the European Union (EAC-2023-0345), the project brought together communities from Transylvania (Romania), Lazio (Italy) and the Valencian Community (Spain) to document, celebrate and safeguard a shared heritage: the ancestral use of spices and aromatic plants as materia medica — at the crossroads of food, medicine and ritual.
Photo: Presentation of Spices project results at the European Heritage Days Assembly. Strasbourg, France. 21 May 2025. Photo credits: Council of Europe.
Documentary | Spices 2024-2025
The result is the documentary 'Spices: European Tales of Ancient Medicinal and Culinary legacies', the first chapter of the HYGEIA Audiovisual Memory Archive — a living record of these traditions, told by the women who keep them alive.
The objectives
Living heritage
Recording culinary practices that have preserved Mediterranean materia medica across Italy, Romania and Spain.
Biodiversity
Raising awareness of the connection between materia medica and terrestrial and oceanic ecosystems.
Women's Voices
Revaluing the central role of women as guardians and transmitters of this ancestral knowledge across generations.
Intercultural Dialogue
Building a European memory through shared culinary and medicinal traditions that connect cultures across borders.
Youth & Future
Revaluing the central role of women as guardians and transmitters of this ancestral knowledge across generations.
Rural–Urban Connection
Bridging rural communities and cities through shared experiences around Hygeia Legacy – Spices.
Gallery
Photo credits © AIS
