kraków heritage lab

This year marks 45 years since Krakow was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was the first European city to be included on the list and, together with the “Wieliczka” Salt Mine, the first entry on the list, which today includes 1,157 properties. This year’s jubilee was an opportunity to inaugurate a new initiative, Kraków Heritage Lab. It is a series of interdisciplinary conversations for the exchange of knowledge and experience in the broadly understood issues of cultural heritage, its care and protection, as well as a creative approach to the issue of sustainable development. So far, two meetings were held in the series.

The theme of the first of them (February 16, 2023) was the Nowa Huta district – one of the best preserved urban and architectural developments of the socialist realism era in Poland and Central Europe. After many years of efforts to appreciate the cultural landscape of this area, on January 30, 2023, it was listed as the Monument of History. The Monument of History is one of the statutory forms of monument protection in Poland. The conversation (available on-line in Polish) includes the history of applying for this entry, and the involvement of experts, researchers, social activists, district councilors and the residents.

The second meeting (March 16, 2023) was devoted to the “Integrated Management of the Historical Center of Krakow”. The debate revolved around systemic administrative, protection and image-related activities undertaken in order to organise Krakow’s public space, develop high-quality events organised in historical areas and implementation of the Krakow’s sustainable development policy. During the meeting, the effects of over three years of activity of the team of the Integrated Centre for the Management of Krakow’s Heritage, established by the Mayor of Krakow, Jacek Majchrowski in 2019, were presented. The creation of the Centre is a response to the growing sense of responsibility for the city’s cultural landscape and the need to implement the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape from 2011, as tools for integrating urbanised space protection policy and practice with broader urban development goals, while respecting the values of heritage and tradition. The most important goal of the Centre is to make arrangements and give opinions on events that take place in a particularly valuable, historical space inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (including the buffer zone), in the area of cultural parks and Błonia meadow.