On 20 November 2014 on the occasion of the Italian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the exhibition of the National Carlo Collodi Foundation entitled “A Dream for Europe: Pinocchio and his European Friends” was presented in Brussels, under the patronage of DG SCIC and in cooperation with TAO-AFI Association of Independent Officials. This event represented the starting point of the European Fairy Tale Route.

In June 2016 the project of the European Fairy Tale Route was presented at the European Institute of Cultural Routes in Luxembourg – the delegation from the Collodi Foundation met with Dr. Stefano Dominioni, Director of the Institute.

Later that year, on 26 & 27 October 2016, a delegation from the Collodi Foundation participated at the VI Cultural Routes Annual Advisory Forum in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Between 27 and 29 September 2017, the Collodi Foundation contributed to organize the VII Cultural Routes Annual Advisory Forum in Lucca, Italy. On this occasion, the official presentation of the project of the European Fairy Tale Route took place.

The creation and organization process of the European Fairy Tale Route has been led by the National Carlo Collodi Foundation. An intense networking activity took place in 2020 and it was marked by the close cooperation between the National Carlo Collodi Foundation and a number of cultural associations, foundations and research centres focused on fairy tales, their authors and characters, who are now part of European literature and cultural heritage.

By March and April 2021, the EFTR founding partners agreed on the Statute of the European Fairy Tale Route Association and signed the Adhesion Letters. These documents led to the creation of the European Fairy Tale Route Association with its headquarters in Collodi.

Among the first activities of the European Fairy Tale Route, to be noted is the participation at the World Storytelling Day on 20 March 2022.

On 5 May 2022, in Luxembourg, the network representatives presented the candidacy of the Route at the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe programme. This event took place at the meeting of the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.

On 1 June 2022 the Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement certified the European Fairy Tale Route as “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe”.

On 26 September 2022 the European Fairy Tale Route was presented in the offices of the Tuscany Region in Bruxelles.

On 26 October 2022 the European Fairy Tale Route organized its first international conference, “The Role of Fantastic Animals in Fairy Tales and Children’s Literature”. 

 

Throughout 2023, the European Fairy Tale Route continued to plan and patronize several events across Europe, including its participation at World Storytelling Day on March 20, the organization of its second international conference on October 26 (“Landscapes of the Imagination”), and the publication of a volume centered on Fantastic Animals, the topic of its 2022 conference.