HISTCAPE Poster Exhibition (2).pdf

Final conference,Podsreda Castle, Slovenia16 September 2014

Information on the HISTCAPE project (2012-2014): www.histcape.euCoordinator of the project: Landentwicklung Steiermark.Contact: [email protected] concept: University of Ljubljana.Contacts: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] design: Art designd.d.o.o.: www.art-design.si

The Landentwicklung Steiermark (Association for Rural Development of Styria) directed their work in the Histcape project towards the development of innovative concepts for the preservation and revitalization of historic town centres in rural communities. Strategic planning, the involvement of citizens and an integrated management approach have proven to be key elements for a successful strategy to reduce vacancies and to ensure vivid town centres. In this regard, two projects have shown remarkable results for rural areas in Styria:

1/Erzhog-Johann Language School in Vordernberg.In order to combat the issue of vacancies in the town centre, the upper Styrian municipality of Vordernberg initiated an innovative project that builds upon the unique history and landscape of the small rural town. Through the establishment of a community based German language school, the municipality makes use of its infrastructural potentials and at the same time opens up new opportunities for the re-use of vacant property in the town centre. In the long run, this will help to preserve and maintain the historic building fabric of the town.

The language school’s target groups are employees and managers of enterprises, foreign students and pupils who seek to improve their proficiency in German. The language school provides an insight into practical aspects of the daily life, the customs and culture of rural Austria by actively involving the participants in the municipality’s public life. The language school’s students are furthermore invited to take part in a diverse range of activities in Vordernberg, what brings new economic opportunities for small businesses and start-ups to the small rural town. Web: http://www.deutsch-im-dorf.at/

Innovative ideas for the re-use of vacant property in small historic rural areas



Innovative ideas for the re-use of vacant property in small historic rural areas

2/Natur Laboratory in Altenberg an der Rax. As the primary school of the small, rural community Altenberg an der Rax was closed, a new usage had to be found for the school building. With the initiation of the Nature Laboratory Altenberg, the former school building was reactivated and a transformed into a multifunctional locality.

The Nature Laboratory is a competence and research centre that is designed as an innovative and inter-university platform that aims to encourage the scientific exchange between students, lecturers and experts from the University of Graz, the Graz University of Technology, the University of Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. The centre’s main focus is placed on research concerning the cultural and natural aspects of the surrounding landscape and natural hazards as well as the promotion of the region’s cultural and natural qualities for the interested public.

The former vacant primary school building is now home to the Nature Laboratory’s headquarters and is used for seminars, courses and excursions. New incentives for the development of the entire region were sparked due to the increased presence of students, lecturers and experts in the area, a development that also entailed a perceptible rise of overnight stays in the municipality of Altenberg.

Web: http://www.naturlabor-altenberg.com



Foundation Tecnalia, Research & Innovation, Spain

Foundation TECNALIA Research & Innovationis a non-profit, research and development center based inthe Basque Country, northern Spain. It is one of the largest R+D centers in Europe with over 1500 professionals and research projects throughout Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Our mission is to improve the quality of life through innovative and applied research. We believe that the conservation of cultural in all its forms is essential to the quality of life.

TECNALIA’s participation in the HISTCAPE project is to lead two components:

-Communication and Dissemination (Component 2). Including the main result of the project, the Final Guidebook. This also includes the quarterly newsletter, online discussions and the project website: www.histcape.eu

-Policy implementation laboratory on rural cultural heritage and landscape conservation (Component 4). This includes working with partners on six Pilot Actions that have been developed during the project: Western Macedonia, Regione Marche, Rhineland-Palatinate, Styria, Saaremaa, and Castilla-Leon.

Web: www.tecnalia.com /en/

Highlights on HISTCAPE GUIDEBOOK:The Project Guidebook is designed to relate the partners’ experiences, lessons learned and guidance for decision makers in other regions of Europe outside the project. This book features Good Practice examples from each region that describes the difficulties, barriers and solutions to issues in rural development related to historic towns and landscapes. There is also a chapter on the methodology used during the project, bibliography section for further reading, contact details and an appendix. This publication will be distributed to key decision makers, libraries and project partners. But it will also be freely available via the project website in digital pdf form.



Roman limes – hidden treasures for economic growth in tourism

Supported by the European Commission General Directorate Enterprise and Industries a partnership from Germany, Austria and Bulgaria developed an app within the LIMES Large Scale Demonstrator project.

Web: http://www.limes-mobile.eu

Economic effects: Established companies as well as start-ups along the limes route are supported. New business models generate innovative value chains for the touristic sector in all countries creating income and jobs for rural areas.

The Roman limes is the only European CH which binds together ten European countries since antiquity: From the North-West in the U K to the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Serbia to the South-East in Bulgaria, it is a unique monument for many regions and partly already nominated UNESCO World Heritage. Only a small part of the 2000 years old fortification is accessible at the moment as it leads through rural regions which are not fully developed for tourism yet.

LIMES- How can a 2000 years old cultural heritage site like the limes, which is mostly hidden in rural landscape and wood, boost cultural tourism and rural economy?

The Limes Mobile app offers innovative mobile services via smartphones and tablets along the Roman limes for information brokering, travel mobility and additional services for visitors as well as local people. Additionally, the app networks touristic sites along the limes via these services.



Coping with Challenges in a historic city: Oberwesel

Sixty municipalities of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley are part of a unique UNESCO World Heritage site. This region is visited by nearly 1 million people a year for the outstanding cultural landscape and the extraordinary historic treasures. But World Heritage status is no protection to demographic changes like shrinking population, decreasing infrastructure and vacant houses. Furthermore, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley is an essential industrial transportation corridor and exposed to high noise levels due to freight rail traffic.What can be done to stop decreasing infrastructure and increasing vacant houses and shops in a protected area? The city of Oberwesel commissioned a study to create a plan for the development of Oberwesel and the surrounding area. It identified the market potentials and included local stakeholders from the very beginning.

Main recommendations for revitalization and a “collaborative development” of neighbouring municipalities:-allow conversion of vacant industrial properties for other uses in the inner city,-increase open space through the clearing of unused places,-create a service center for visitors to five municipalities, providing space for charging batteries and repairing of bicycles, e-bikes and e-cars, which can be rented in the Rhine valley,-organize flexible accommodations in empty houses to answer seasonal peaks,-organize shops and services with opening hours on alternative days in rotation between five municipalities.

Master Plan for the Upper Middle Rhine Valley / Germany

Oberwesel with Liebfrauenkirche (picture credits: Daniela Ziermann)

Walking at Oberwesel’s ancient city walls (picture credits: Werner Klockner)

Information on the master plan Upper Middle Rhine valley: http://www.mwkel.rlp.de/File/masterplan-kapitel-i-englisch-pdf/ Homepage of the city of Oberwesel (partly in English): www.Oberwesel.de

GENERALDIREKTION KULTURELLES ERBE



Regione Marche (Italy) and Landscape Protection

Regione Marche is now working to improve its landscape protection policy and to create active policies for landscape. To live in better ordinary landscapes and to improve landscape governance not only high-value landscapes but also ́ everyday´ landscapes must be taken into account.

With HISTCAPE Pilot Action, Regione Marche pointed out that a landscape policy can also increase social and territorial cohesion and produce better development performances. This approach requires a more active, participatory involvement from the community in landscape protection and management.

Regione Marche is one of the 20 Italian Regions. It lies in the Central Italy alongside the Adriatic Sea.

It is known for its different landscapes ranging from mountains to the sea and particularly for its typical landscape of hills and rural areas with a wealth of historical settlements and heritage assets.

Marche Region has been pursuing the objective of safeguarding and enhancing the quality of its landscapes thanks to the Regional Landscape Plan. It has focused on protecting regional historical heritage as well as its botanical and geological assets through connected landscape and urban policies.

Web: www.regione.marche.it



Norther Cultural Regional Direction (Portugal)Northern Portugal Regional Directorate for Culture (DRCN) is a decentralized body governed by public law, created in 2006, with competences in preservation, conservation, valuation and promotion of cultural heritage.

Web: www.culturanorte.pt

DRCN has also in charge the creation of conditions of access to cultural goods, monitoring the activities and supervision of artistic production structures financed by services and bodies in the area of culture of the entire territory of Northern Region of Portugal, with legal powers to safeguard property around 1200 architectural and archeological sites, classified as National Heritage in the North of Portugal, in addition to the 4 sites classified by UNESCO as World Heritage (Historic Centre of Porto, Historic Centre of Guimarães, Alto Douro Wine Region and Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde).

The Northern Region of Portugal has many small historic centers, with more than 800 years of history, which integrate several different heritage values. DRCN intervenes in the rehabilitation of these small centres, contributing to ensuring the sustainable development of these areas, depressed in socio-economic terms, particularly in the countryside.

The HISTCAPE project, through the exchange of experiences between organisms of award of the cultural heritage of different countries allowed the increase of good practice, staff capacity and new policies in heritage and landscape protection and management, particularly in rural territories, enhancing local economies through valorization of rural values.



Castilla & León Regional Authority

The regional authority of Castilla & Leon has overall authority regarding the cultural heritage of the entire region. There are 587 municipalities within Castilla & Leon with historical assets or monuments distributed throughout nine provinces. 120 municipalities are protected cultural assets; about 80 of which are small towns under 5.000 inhabitants with many having a population of just a few hundred people.

The region is therefore characterised by the range and the quality of these historical assets dispersed over an extensive, scarcely populated territory.

The regional authority has an ambitious programme for heritage, set out in its Strategic Plan for Cultural Heritage (Plan PAHIS 2014-2012). This includes the recognition of cultural values and the cataloguing of cultural assets as well as guaranteeing the protection of cultural heritage, preserving and restoring cultural heritage, as well as collaboration with other institutions and organisations. Throughout the project we expect to develop innovative instruments and tools for the improvement of sustainable territorial management policies in cultural heritage preservation and to create a common methodology for the protection of small towns with cultural heritage values situated in rural, scarcely populated areas.

Castilla & Leon is located in the northwest of Spain. It is one of the 17 autonomous communities that territorially comprise Spain. The region has more land surface than any other community in Spain with a low average population density of 27,15 inhabitants/km2 and a high density in cultural heritage assets,1820 declared cultural properties and 8 declared UNESCO World Heritage.

Web: jcyl.es



Restoration of St.James’s Cathedral in Šibenik, Croatia

The dome is 31.20m high, built of 10 to 15 cm thick stone plates and 55cm thick stone ribs. Nikola Ivanov from Florence built cathedral in 15th century from Brač Island limestone.

St. James’s Cathedral in Šibenik is the most significant architectural monument built in the Renaissance style in Croatia. It is the characteristic and outstanding solution to the technical and structural problems of construction that make it an unique monument of European sacral architecture, enlisted in the UNESCO’s world heritage register in 2001.

Contact: Miljenko Domijan, former chief conservator, Ministry of Culture of Republic Croatia,[email protected]

Four plates in the southern and four plates in the southwest fields and ribs between these fields were damaged with direct hits during the war of 1991. Following the structural analyses and on site research, prototype model of one quarter of dome was built for better understanding of dome’s construction. It enables proper dismantling, repair and re-assembly of the dome using traditional methods and materials.



Wetland of Lonjsko Polje Nature Park & its Vernacular Wooden Architecture

Vlatka Rajčić, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Civil Engineering

The high quality oak trees provides rich source of natural material for development of settlements. The first inhabitants of wetlands settled in houses named “stupljanka” (house on the stilts) which developed in two-storey wooden houses named “čardak” Traditional wooden buildings are rich in various architectural elements and woodcarvings.

The traditional settlements and wooden architecture are protected by strict national regulations. In the same time the fostering of protected areas friendly economic activities is underway.

Lonjsko Polje Nature Park is one of the largest protected wetland areas of the Danube basin. It is located in the central part of Northern Croatia, along the left bank of river Sava.

The area of 511 km² has been declared The Natural Park in 1990. Donja Posavina bird area is part of the Ramsar List of Wetlands of International Importance and declared an Important Bird Area (IBA), since 1993 as wintering site or rest site of migratory birds and nesting sites for 140 species. Included in European NATURA 2000 network of nature protection areas in 2013.

Lonja field grows about 550 different species of plants. Many of them are on the European list of endangered species due to habitat devastation as oak, ash, and snake’s head fritillary. Nature Park area was, for its exceptional natural, landscape and cultural values included in the nomination list of the UNESCO World Heritage List in the mixed site category.

Documents

HISTCAPE Poster Exhibition (2).pdf