ABSTRACT
‘Liberté, Liberté Chérie’. Frans Michael Franzén, a 23-year-old scholar and a poet, was about to start his European journey and wrote these words in his travel diary, referring to the new anthem of freedom, ‘The Marseillaise’. It was the 13th of May 1795, and Franzén was anxious to prepare himself for the great adventure. His journey would last one and a half years and would take him to Denmark, to numerous towns in the German territory, to the Netherlands, to France and England. His point of departure was the city of Turku on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the Kingdom of Sweden. Franzén belonged to that countless number of European travellers who wanted to experience the central sites of the European civilisation. These travellers were mapping Europe, following and creating a network of travel routes and narratives that have shaped and reshaped not only their own understanding of Europe, but also the understanding of those with whom they shared their travel stories.
