Ljubka’s Trail, a cross-border literary trail of poetry and equality, is a project by the Forum of Slavic Cultures and the Lojze Bratuž Cultural Center. It combines the European initiatives of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and the European Capital of Culture EPK GO! 2025 Nova Gorica – Gorica.

Ljubka’s Trail is a cultural route through the life, art, and history of Ljubka Šorli and other writers who have left their mark on Gorizia. It highlights writers who have been largely unknown, forgotten, or overlooked, and are rarely found in historical and literary records or textbooks. The path is dedicated to the role and representation of women in society and uncovers hidden regional history.

The trail takes visitors through their life and literary routes, connecting a wider area on both sides of the border, reaching all the way to Tolmin, where Ljubka Šorli was born and raised. This newly accessible thematic cultural path is part of an extensive international network of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Routes.

The project, due to its central theme – Ljubka Šorli and the writers of Gorizia – requires cross-border cooperation. Ljubka Šorli was born in Tolmin, where she spent most of her childhood, and later lived in Gorizia, where she remained until her death, greatly influencing the cultural pulse of the Slovenian minority in Italy.

She left her mark on both sides of the border, reflected in her poetry (as can be seen from the titles of her poetry collections – Goriške pesmi (Gorizia Poems) and Tolminske pesmi (Tolmin Poems)). Therefore, the trail following her footsteps is inevitably cross-border. Many of the writers who lived and created in Gorizia at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, and who are part of the cultural and tourist trail, were not limited to their local or regional community. Not only because there was no border at that time, but also because these writers were cosmopolitan and embraced the cultural and linguistic diversity of the area, often acting as cultural and linguistic intermediaries.

The FSK (Forum of Slavic Cultures) is the initiator and founder of the cultural path dedicated to women writers – the Women Writers Route. It is a cultural-tourism project that developed into a cultural route, which in 2022 received the title of Cultural Route of the Council of Europe. This prestigious certification is held by 48 European cultural routes. The cultural route includes 20 cultural institutions and local communities from 6 countries, including the FSK, and is dedicated to 14 writers from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a time when women began to step more widely into public life. In addition to their artistic achievements, the path also commemorates their struggle for equality and the increased role of women in society.

The Lojze Bratuž Cultural Center is an important cultural landmark for the broader Gorizia community, open to all cultural content, with a history of over 60 years in the fields of music, theater, exhibitions, and other forms of cultural and social activity. The center hosts important cultural events aimed at strengthening and preserving national, linguistic, and cultural identity. Much attention is paid to the youth and their involvement in activities. From the very beginning, the Cultural Center has been a crossroads of different languages and cultures and has always realized cross-border cooperation.

The project is financed by the European Union from the GO! 2025 small projects fund of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 program, managed by the EZTS GO.