Minister of Education Culture, Dolores Cristina, Parliamentary Secretary Dr Mario Demarco and Heritage Malta's Chairman, Dr Mario Tabone. yesterday launched a Heritage Trail that covers a route along the harbour area of Valletta, Floriana and Marsa, three important mercantile localities. The trail is part of the EU-funded Mercator project of which Heritage Malta is the lead partner.

The launch was held at the end of a two day international conference which was held at the Malta Maritime Museum in Vittoriosa.

By means of this Heritage Trail the public will be able to obtain information from nine panels that have been fixed along the way starting at Xatt il-Barrieri and ending at Menqa in Marsa. In the panels one finds information about important buildings connected with mercantile activity.

The three localities are all important contributors to mercantile activity. Valletta has been important since the time of the Knights while activity at Marsa started during the time of the British.

The idea behind this initiative is to diffuse information about the historical aspects of maritime commerce and merchants amongst the Maltese public and visitors and not to restrict it to historians and researchers only.

This project, entitled Route des Marchands, Ville des Marchés En Mediterranée (MERCATOR) brings together six countries and the collaboration of prestigious institutions including the Diputacion de Alicante - MARQ in Spain, the University of Mertola in Portugal and Istituto di Storia della Cultura Material (ISCUM) on behalf of the Regione Liguria in Italy.

During this project these institutions shared and promoted information on merchants and merchant cities in Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries. The project's aim was to make the subject available to the public via all modern means of information technology and modern communications. This included an interregional publication, a web-site and the creation of a comprehensive database of merchants and merchant cities of the period. The website can be found at www.mercatorproject.eu.

Four workshops and four international conferences were held over the two years duration of this project, which enhanced the exchange of ideas and experience on the promotion and management of maritime heritage in the Mediterranean. An educational multimedia programme directed towards school children was also envisaged and is available on this website.

In all the partner countries, funds from the MERCATOR project finances, amongst other things, the setting up a heritage trail in various ports which tourists and natives alike can see and walk through. The MERCATOR project was launched in 2006 during a steering committee meeting held in Malta. At the time, a time line for the completion of the project has been agreed on and a logo, designed by Heritage Malta staff was finalized as well.

The MERCATOR project forms part of the Interegg IIIB MEDOCC Programme, an EU-funded initiative aimed at stimulating trans-national cooperation between countries in the Mediterranean. The project will be closed in June 2008 with the launching of various activities in Malta.