diff --git a/routes/redirects.js b/routes/redirects.js
index 07081b1..ecf8034 100644
--- a/routes/redirects.js
+++ b/routes/redirects.js
@@ -41,6 +41,12 @@ router.get("/([a-z][a-z])/:page([a-z-]+)", (req, res) => {
 // Redirec ILC1 URL to its URI
 router.get("/ILC/1", (req, res) => res.redirect("/en/node/472"))
 
+// Redirect local vocabulary URIs to URI search
+router.get("/en/Format/:id([a-zA-Z0-9_-]+)", (req, res) =>
+  res.redirect(`/?uri=http://bartoc.org/en/Format/${req.params.id}`))
+router.get("/language/:id([a-z]{2,3})", (req, res) =>
+  res.redirect(`/?uri=http://bartoc.org/language/${req.params.id}`))
+
 // redirect old subject URLs to vocabulary search
 
 for (const [url, uri] of readCsv("./data/eurovoc-ids.csv")) {
diff --git a/routes/uri.js b/routes/uri.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9f7053
--- /dev/null
+++ b/routes/uri.js
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+import express from "express"
+const router = express.Router()
+
+import config from "../config/index.js"
+
+const suffix = (s, prefix) => s.startsWith(prefix) ? s.slice(prefix.length) : null
+
+const conceptView = (id, uri) => `/en/node/${id}?uri=${encodeURIComponent(uri)}#content`
+
+// query uri at base
+router.get("/", async (req, res, next) => {
+  const { uri } = req.query
+  if (!uri) {
+    next()
+  } else {
+
+    // BARTOC URI, URL or lookalike
+    const bartocUri = uri.match('^https?://(www\.)?bartoc.org/(.*)')
+    if (bartocUri) {
+      const localPart = bartocUri[2]
+
+      // known vocabularies with namespace at bartoc.org
+      if (localPart.startsWith("en/Format/")) {
+        res.redirect(conceptView("20000", `http://bartoc.org/${localPart}`))
+      } else if (localPart.startsWith("language/")) {
+        res.redirect(conceptView("20287", `http://bartoc.org/${localPart}`))
+      } else {
+        // TODO: add ILC as well
+        // any other page
+        res.redirect(`/${localPart}`)
+      }
+
+      return
+    }
+
+    // Vocabulary or concept stored in the backend
+    const dataEndpoint = config.registry._api.api + "data"
+    const jskos = await config.registry.axios.get(dataEndpoint, { params: { uri } })
+      .then(res => res[0])
+      .catch(() => null)
+    if (jskos) {
+      const type = jskos.type[0]
+      if (type === "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#ConceptScheme") {
+        // known vocabulary
+        const id = suffix(jskos.uri, "http://bartoc.org/en/node/")
+        if (id) {
+          res.redirect(`/en/node/${id}`)
+          return
+        }
+      } else if (type === "http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#Concept") {
+        // known concept
+        console.log(jskos.inScheme)
+        const schemes = jskos.inScheme
+          .map(s => suffix(s.uri, "http://bartoc.org/en/node/"))
+          .filter(Boolean)
+        if (schemes.length) {
+          res.redirect(conceptView(schemes[0], concept))
+          return
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    // TODO: try to match to a known vocabulary namespace
+    // e.g. http://bartoc.org/api-type/jskos
+
+    next()
+  }
+})
+
+export default router
diff --git a/server.js b/server.js
index 23c58eb..6ea4316 100644
--- a/server.js
+++ b/server.js
@@ -58,11 +58,12 @@ app.use("/dist/", express.static("dist"))
 
 import redirectsRoute from "./routes/redirects.js"
 import apiRoute from "./routes/api.js"
+import uriRoute from "./routes/uri.js"
 import pageRoute from "./routes/page.js"
 
-// Routes without server-side backend access
 app.use(redirectsRoute)
 app.use("/api", apiRoute)
+app.use(uriRoute)
 app.use(pageRoute)
 
 // render HTML page with EJS
@@ -161,12 +162,7 @@ function conceptPageHandler(prefix) {
   }
 }
 
-
-app.get("/en/Format/:id", conceptPageHandler("http://bartoc.org/en/Format/") )
-
-app.get("/language/:id([a-z]{2,3})", conceptPageHandler("https://bartoc.org/language/") )
-
-// FIXME: ILC is not in the BARTOC registry yet
+// TODO: ILC is not in the BARTOC registry yet
 app.get("/ILC/1/:id([a-z0-9-]+)", conceptPageHandler("https://bartoc.org/ILC/1/") )
 
 // list of terminology registries
diff --git a/views/404.ejs b/views/404.ejs
index e70d3fb..b40af1f 100644
--- a/views/404.ejs
+++ b/views/404.ejs
@@ -1,5 +1,16 @@
 <%- include('header') %>
 
-<p>Sorry, the resource could not be found!</p>
+<p>
+  Sorry, the resource could not be found!
+  Are you <a href="/vocabularies">looking for vocabularies</a>?
+</p>
+<p>
+<p>
+  Search by URI:
+  <form action="/" method="get">
+    <input type="text" name="uri" />
+    <input type="submit" />
+  </form>
+</p>
 
 <%- include('footer') %>