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On 6th September in Cieszyn, Professor Jacek Purchla, Vice-President of Europa Nostra, took part in the ceremony honouring the Serfenta Association with the prestigious European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award. As part of the event, a Medal was also unveiled and embedded in the wall of Serfenta’s headquarters, located in Cieszyn’s old town.

The first of three podcasts in this series, focused on this topic, is now available – titled “Nadsanie”. In the 13th episode of the “Ukraine Heritage Spotlight” podcast, we’re at the Ukrainian House in Przemyśl, run by the Association of Ukrainians in Poland. In the podcast, members of the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków, John Beauchamp and Dr. Katarzyna Jagodzińska, speak with several Ukrainian activists.

The project, jointly undertaken by the Jagiellonian University and Europa Nostra Heritage Hub, aims to draw attention to the need to save Ukrainian cultural heritage in the post-migration area of south-eastern Poland (Polish-Ukrainian, Polish-Slovak, Polish-Belarusian borderlands) and to take actions that would contribute to the integration and opening of this hermetic minority environment, experienced by historical traumas, rootlessness and exclusion.

How are comics supporting Ukraine’s war effort against the Russian invader? In the new episode of the podcast “Ukraine Heritage Spotlight”, we talk with Bohdan Kordoba, founder and CEO of “UA Comix”.

In the 12th episode of the podcast “Ukraine Heritage Spotlight”, we travel to Lviv, where we speak with Bozhena Pelenska, the Executive Director of Jam Factory Art Center. This venue, a popular hub for artists from Ukraine and abroad, aspires to become the leading exhibition space in the country.

On 19 June, the Kraków Heritage Forum met for the last time before the summer break. Over 40 representatives from Kraków’s NGOs, informal groups, institutions, and the City Council gathered at the Guild of Food Crafts to continue their work on protecting and promoting Kraków’s culinary heritage by developing a set of recommendations for the city authorities and the Provincial Marshal’s Office.

The Selection Committee, including Katarzyna Jagodzińska PhD, Head of Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Krakow, along with other experts who are partners of the European Heritage Hub project, selected a greater number of initiatives due to their outstanding nature! Which projects received funding and what criteria did they have to meet to secure support? You can find more information in our article.

We discuss how the concept of heritage has evolved over the decades with one of the leading European experts in this field, Professor Jacek Purchla, Vice-President of Europa Nostra. In the podcast, you’ll also learn about examples of best practices and approaches to heritage conservation on our continent.

The Social Forum, developed as part of the European Heritage Hub, is a pilot project co-funded by the EU that supports the Hub’s mission of connecting heritage stakeholders and initiatives across Europe.

In 2022, Bratislava regained one of its most iconic examples of architecture. After a thorough revitalization of the socialist-realist building, commonly known as “The Bridge, of the Slovak National Gallery was reopened in this location. Dr. Alexandra Kusá, the Director General of of the Slovak National Gallery and an art historian specializing in 20th-century art, discusses the construction work that restored the space’s splendor after over twenty years of closure.

In the inaugural episode, “Harnessing the Power of Ukrainian Heritage”, we are in Lviv, where we meet with leading cultural figures to learn about efforts to preserve and safeguard Ukrainian cultural heritage in the face of the ongoing conflict with Russia. Our interviewees include: Lilia Onyshchenko-Shvets, advisor to the mayor of Lviv on heritage protection; Vasyl Rozhko from НеМо: the Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab; Dr. Iryna Sklokina, a researcher at the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv; Taras Voznyak, director of the Lviv National Art Gallery; and Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak, a leading Ukrainian historian.

All of this year’s Polish laureates are connected with Silesia: Historic Ignacy Mine, Rybnik (Category: Conservation and Adaptation), Serfenta Craft Revitalization Model, Cieszyn (Category: Education, Training, and Skills), Piotr Gerber PhD, Wrocław (Heritage Champions category).