Coesima

Patmos belongs to the European network COESIMA (Coopération Européenne des Sites Majeurs d’Accueil), which was established within the framework of the Community initiative INTERREG III South. The network is composed of seven major European tourist destinations:

• Lourdes (France),
• Loreto (Italy),
• Czestochowa (Poland),
• Fatima (Portugal),
• Altötting (Germany),
• Santiago de Compostela (Spain) – and, of course,
• Patmos.

All of the above cities, with a history spanning over many centuries, welcome a total of 20 million visitors a year and collaborate so as to meet visitors’ expectations, define the means of facilitating new visitors, enhance cultural heritage and ensure a common promotion of these locations internationally.

It should be noted that, of these seven traditional pilgrimage sites, only Patmos attracts the faithful of all Christian denominations (and not mainly Roman Catholics), but also that it stands out, too, because its religious visitors do not come to worship a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary as in the other locations, but to gain a firsthand experience of the site of the Revelation to Saint John.