“The Hygeia Legacy” is the annual international seminar promoted by Aromas Itinerarium Salutis – The European Route of Historic Pharmacies and Medicinal Gardens, certified as a Cultural Route of the Council of Europe.

The initiative brings together heritage professionals, researchers and innovators around a common goal: to regenerate our relationship with health, nature and culture through the lens of tradition, identity and sustainability.

WHY “HYGEIA”

Hygeia was one of the daughters of the god of medicine in Classical Antiquity, Asclepius–Aesculapius. She was considered the goddess of hygiene and health.

To speak today of "the legacy of Hygeia" means recognizing the contemporary value of ancestral medicinal knowledge, the important role played by women since Antiquity in its preservation, the sustainable practices, and the cultural approaches capable of inspiring more conscious, inclusive, and regenerative models of development.

OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITIES

In line with the values of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes Programme, “The Hygeia Legacy” aims to:

  • promote intercultural and intergenerational dialogue

  • strengthen cooperation between territories, institutions and cultural networks

  • foster the transmission of Europe’s biocultural memory

  • support innovative and sustainable models of heritage valorisation

THE FORMAT

The seminar is aimed at those working in heritage and knowledge valorisation, as well as in the fields of natural health, applied ecology, environmental regeneration and sustainable innovation. Each edition includes:

  • interdisciplinary thematic sessions

  • professional visits and on-site activities

  • networking and knowledge exchange moments

It is hosted every year in a different location within the AIS network, involving pharmacy museums, botanical gardens and medicinal plant sites, universities, archives, cultural institutions and local communities.

MEANING AND PURPOSE

The seminar stands as an international platform for training, research and co-design, where tradition and innovation are interwoven in a continuous dialogue between past and future.

Based on historical memory, local identities and traditional knowledge, “The Hygeia Legacy” promotes a new European culture of care and well-being, grounded in knowledge, responsibility, social cohesion and sustainability.