In 1335, three Central European kings met in the Hungarian medieval royal palace Visegrad and signed a co-operation agreement. It was an anti-Habsburg alliance.
In 1991, three Central European presidents met in the same place to follow up on this 656 year old treaty. Cooperation was also intended as a defense against the then-existing USSR.
The declaration was signed on February 15th, 1991, and its aim was to create a formation that would help its member states with shaping a new political and economic arrangement in Central Europe. When Czechoslovakia split into two states in 1993 the original Visegrad Three became Visegrad Four.
In 2000, V4 states established the International Visegrad Fund that supports activities in the field of cultural cooperation, scientific exchange, research, education, youth and cross-border cooperation among V4 states, and also among V4 states and other countries. The Fund finances projects involving as many V4 entities as possible.
One of the interesting events supported by the Fund is a project “Visegrad reads to children“. The intention of the project´s authors is to raise awareness of the benefits of reading to children. Within the Week of reading to children took place a number of interesting events during which participants could get to know literature for children of Czech, Slovak, Polish and Hungarian authors.
