The ultimate Cultural Route starts on the ‘Road to Damascus’ (when safety and security conditions would permit) from Jerusalem, with the transformation of Saul of Tarsus (Paul’s Jewish name) and a persecutor of Christians into Paul, God’s chosen Apostle to spread Christianity to the Gentiles (non-Jews), thus becoming the ‘Apostle of the nations’ as he is known in the Orthodox Church (particularly in Greece and Cyprus).

Then the main Cultural Route traces the footsteps of Apostle Paul and his associates, Barnabas, Lucas, Sillas, Timotheus, Titus, Philimon, Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, etc, through the journeys:

• 1^st Mission from Antioch of Syria by sea to Salamis by in Cyprus and then on land through Cyprus to Pafos

• 2^nd Mission from Jerusalem through Galatia (Asia Minor) to Greece and back

• 3^rd Mission from Jerusalem to Greece, via the islands of Chios and Mytilini and on the return journey through island of Samos, Cos and Rodos, and:

• 4^th Journey to Rome for his trial by the Ceaser as a Roman citizen, by sea with stop in Crete, ship wreck in Meliti present day Malta (or Kefalonia island in Ionian sea), then to Syracouse, Regium, Putoeli port in Campania and then on by land through Via Appia to Rome with important stops at Foro Appio and Tres Tabernes where the Christian Romans came to meet him. Till his martyrdom and burial at the grave where the present Basilica Papale di San Paolo fuori le Mura (St Paul’s outside the walls of Rome) was built.

• Journey to Tarragona in Spain (Route of first Christians, chapel of St Paul) (www.tarragonaturisme.cat/en/route-earliest-christians-tarraco).