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The Narrative Heritage Network, launched at the end of 2025 by the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków, the 2026 season opened on Wednesday 29 April with an online workshop session on the use of sound in heritage hosted by John Beauchamp, an audio professional and sonic heritage researcher.

We warmly invite you to the second meeting of the Narrative Heritage Network, which will be held online on Wednesday 29 April at 13:30 CEST. In creating this discussion platform, we aim to unite people involved in storytelling on a daily basis – museum staff, non-governmental organisations and cultural institutions, artists, and outreach professionals – to exchange experiences, engage in discussions on current challenges and share best practices.

As part of the project Mapping the Non-Governmental Heritage Sector in North and Western Europe (2026–2027), we are launching the survey phase addressed to non-governmental organisations active in the field of cultural heritage in Northern and Western Europe. The study is carried out by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow within the framework of the European Heritage Hub, coordinated by Europa Nostra.

On 12 March, the Steering Committee of the European Heritage Hub project held its first meeting. Poland was represented by Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik (Director of the ICC), Dr Joanna Sanetra-Szeliga, and Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska (members of the research team).

Professor Gábor Sonkoly, a renowned theoretician of cultural heritage and co-creator of the discourse of the historic urban landscape, talks to Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska about the practical application of the concept in the form of the European Heritage Label and other ‘lists’ and ‘registers’ of heritage sites and practices. Does the abundance of heritage inscriptions distract the public’s attention, or does it help to raise awareness and develop the heritage economy?

In January 2026, the team working with the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków started the second stage of their project to map the non-governmental heritage sector across Europe. This project is being carried out as part of the European Heritage Hub (EHH) consortium, which is led by Europa Nostra. The International Cultural Centre is managing the project activities, with communication support provided by the Society of Friends of Kraków History and Heritage.

In the fourth interview of the ‘Heritage Voices’ series, Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska talks to Dr Mechtilda Rössler, who has been involved with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre since its inception in 1992. In this interview, the expert shares her insights on the processes of inscribing sites on the World Heritage List, and discusses the challenges and concerns related to its development and heritage protection. The most worrying issues seem to be the politicisation of nominations and the ulterior motives behind them. Should the focus be on managing sites that are already on the List better, or on expanding the List with new sites?

EC1 Łódź hosted the unveiling ceremony for the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award plaque, one of the most prestigious awards in the field of cultural heritage protection in Europe! Prof. Jacek Purchla, Vice-President of Europa Nostra and Chairman of the Europa Nostra Awards Jury, and Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, a member of the Europa Nostra Board, attended the event.

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.

We’re creating an online platform called the Heritage Sound Register to collect the sounds of Central and Eastern European heritage. The project covers natural and cultural landscapes, including industrial ones. Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków is running the initiative, which is being curated by John Beauchamp.

What challenges does the cultural heritage sector in Belarus face? Are private initiatives in this area possible? How does politics influence heritage? What conservation projects are currently being implemented there? The third conversation in the “Heritage Voices” series was conducted by Dr Katarzyna Jagodzińska with Dr Stsiapan Stureika, a distinguished researcher of cultural heritage, chair of the Belarusian National Committee of ICOMOS, and a lecturer at the European Humanities University in Vilnius – a Belarusian university in exile.

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?