HOLISTIC HERITAGE

The popularity of the Schindler Factory – a branch of the Museum of Kraków – which opened 15 years ago, has since led to the creation of a new museum at the nearby KL Plaszow concentration camp. How can the two museums complement each other, and how is it that the KL Plaszow Holocaust memorial site went for so long without being properly commemorated? Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska meets with Monika Bednarek, director of the KL Plaszow Museum, as well as Bartosz Heksel, manager of the Schindler Factory branch of the Museum of Kraków.

For this episode of Heritage Hour we are in Nowa Huta – the industrialised, socialist-realist city established in the late 1940s, acting as a proletarian counterweight to the seemingly snobbish and intellectual city of Kraków. Over seven decades later, and Nowa Huta’s sprawling steelworks have all but disappeared, the district is one of the greenest in Kraków, and new challenges await. While the city is on the Polish historical monuments register (designated as a pomnik historii), it now has a chance to promote itself further by applying to UNESCO. But is such a heritage label what Nowa Huta really wants, or needs?

In this episode of Holistic Heritage, we open our ears to the sounds of heritage. Is sound heritage? Sound is inherent to every building, every object. A wind which whistles its way through a church door, the bustle of people on a market square, the echo inside a church or even farm machinery harvesting the year’s crops…

In this episode of Holistic Heritage, we look at ongoing negotiations between preserving the old and allowing new architecture in World Heritage Cities. The implementation of new architecture in World Heritage City Areas is a challenge. What is allowed and what needs to be negotiated? What is the range and limit of these negotiations? Isn’t it better to build new somewhere else, leaving protected areas as they are?

The Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum is celebrating its 25th anniversary! In the latest episode of “Holistic Heritage”, Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska visits one of the most extraordinary places specially created for modern and contemporary art in the 21st century in Central Europe. She examines how it has been embedded in this remarkable natural and cultural landscape. Her guide is Michaela Šimonová, who shares the history and architecture of this Danubian gem.

In the next episode of the “On The Road” podcast series, we visit the Bulgarian town of Kazanlak, located in the Valley of the Roses. This region – also rich in UNESCO World Heritage sites – is primarily famous for its sprawling rose fields which stretch for kilometres, with their flowering cycle shaping the local calendar of celebrations.