On Wednesday 17 June 2026 as part of the European Heritage Hub we hosted the third meeting of the Narrative Heritage Network, which invites heritage practitioners and enthusiasts to discuss the role of smell in creating narratives.The meeting was attended by around 20 participants representing a wide range of heritage organisations from across Europe and beyond. An introductory presentation on the subject of olfactory senses in heritage was made by John Beauchamp – an audio producer and sonic heritage researcher – who described a number of case studies and how smell can be incorporated into visitor experiences.
Following the presentation participants had the opportunity to raise their own case studies, providing a platform for debate and discussion on different ways of using smell as a mode of heritage transmission. The meeting took place online, with participants from the UK, Latvia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Poland, Spain, Austria, as well as further afield, thus providing a great mix of experiences and topics for deliberation. We heard from Anita Rachwał, from the Fundacja Rodzinne Ogrody (Family Gardens Foundation) based in Poland, who gave a short presentation on ethnobotany and the various smells we can find in forests and gardens. Meanwhile, Aida Vezic from the Balkan Museum Network spoke about her experience in the Balkans, inviting participants to take part in a workshop-facilitators session as part of a conference on museums in Trbenje, Bosnia, later on in 2026. Further discussion and words of support came from Jan Moritz Onken from Callias Foundation based in Vienna, which promotes artistic dialogue.
Other comments and case studies were raised by Jo Scott, a heritage consultant based in the UK, as well as an interesting call to action from Rosa Arias of the Science for Change, a social enterprise which promotes research, including a recent project on odour and pollution. Voices here were raised to show support for a potential European-wide project on olfactory heritage interpretation, on the back of a number of other smell projects in Europe, such as OdEuropa on smell heritage and D-Noses.
