The European Route of Industrial Heritage (ERIH) is a network (theme route) of the most important industrial heritage sites in Europe. This is a tourism industry information initiative to present a network of industrial heritage sites across Europe. The aim of the project is to create interest for the common European Heritage of the Industrialisation and its remains. ERIH also wants to promote regions, towns and sites showing the industrial history and market them as visitor attractions in the leisure and tourism industry.
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Anchor points
The – virtual – main route is built by the so-called Anchor Points. These are Industrial Heritage sites which are the historically most important and most attractive for visitors. The route leads through 13 countries thus far (in 2014): Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The anchor sites in 2015 are:
Regional Routes
Regional Routes (like the Route der Industriekultur in the Ruhr) cover regions as where industrial history has left its mark. Currently (2015) there are seventeen:
European Theme Routes
Fourteen European Theme Routes show the diversity of industrial landscapes all over Europe and the common roots of industrial history: