The Network has its origins in a project submitted to the EACEA Call for Cooperation Projects (European Education and Culture Executive Agency) in 2019. It was submitted by four partners: the Seminario de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil de Guadalajara (Spain), the Comenius University of Bratislava (Slovakia), the Maison du Conte de Chevilly-Larue (France) and the Fondazione per Leggere (Italy).
In addition to these four partners, the project had the cooperation of the University of Alcalá de Henares (UAH), the State Public Library in Guadalajara and the Associazione La lettura Nonostante.
The project was born out of a commitment to create a network of sites and cities that have a special relationship with the oral tradition, and that would work in a similar way to other thematic international associations. To this aim, it was proposed to build five tools:
- A database on storytelling cities with a close connection to the oral tradition in the countries of the European Union.
- The legal documents necessary for the creation and functioning of the Network: founding act and statutes.
- The production of a show about European storytelling, in a creative residency involving storytellers from different EU countries.
- A theoretical research study on the connections between reading and storytelling, and how storytelling can serve to broaden reading experiences.
- A practical study to look for possible connections between oral heritage and new technologies, exemplified by the construction of an augmented reality app that can be used as a support for oral storytelling.
The project ran from 2019 to 2023, resulting in the creation of the European Network of Storytelling Sites and Towns based in Guadalajara (Spain).