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Newsletter 1/2013

PROJECT

THE DANUBE LIMES BRAND PROJECT— MAIN OBJECTIVES AND GOALS

The Roman Limes is the single largest cultural heritagemonument in Europe approved as a multi-national,“Frontiers of the Roman Empire World Heritage Site”by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2005.The Roman Empire, its provinces and outer boundariesare at the heart of Europe’s identity and history. Thefrontier zone along the river Danube, connecting 10countries from the Black Forest to the Black Sea formsan impressive archaeological landscape with hundredsof military installations – fortresses, forts, watchtowersand civil settlements. Those monuments tell the vibrantstory of the Roman frontiers centuries-long evolutionand culture. The remains of the fortified frontier, bothabove and below ground, are often in a remarkablygood condition. They have been well integrated intothe landscape and certainly deserve more attention andcare. The World Heritage designation on the DanubeLimes heritage would garantee a longterm and sustain-able protection and development and also ensure aproper and adaquate utilization of the cultural heritageresources and a great increase in awareness raising.More and better collaboration between the Danubecountries and their relevant institutions will foster theestablishment of a common cultural route, a joint actionplan and a common marketing strategy.

DANUBE LIMES MONUMENTS FOR WORLD HERITAGE STATUS

— THE BEGINNING

After the first Danube Limes Brand project presentationand an informal get-together at the XXII InternationalLimes Congress in Ruse, Bulgaria from 6–11 September2012 the project partnership was started at the Kick-offMeeting in Vienna on 12–13 October 2013 with activities in the core groups on UNESCO nominationdossiers and Danube Limes.

Fortification Traismauer/AT (© Boundary Production)

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Branding proceeded with the identification of and con-tact with the main stakeholders, the start of the archaeo-logical assessment on the individual Limes sections andLimes market surveys. In January 2013 the Danube LimesBrand project website www.danubelimesbrand.org wentonline. At the 2nd Project Meeting, held at the Archaeo-logical Park and Research Center Viminacium in Serbiaon 19–20 April 2013, dedicated to the central premisesand conditions of the UNESCO inscriptions the part-ners benefitted from concrete experiences in definingand mapping core and buffer zones on monumentpreservation expertise from Great Britain (HadrianswallWorld Heritage Site WHS), (Antonine Wall WHS), Germany (Upper German Raetian Limes WHS) andSlovakia (Danube Limes in Slovakia, prospectiveWHS). Beside our own meetings representatives of theproject participated in several major internationalevents, the DanubeHIKE and the 3rd InternationalDanube Tourism conferences in Linz in autumn 2012,the Cultural Routes Workshop in Vienna March 8 2013and the 1st Danube Culture Conference in Ulm, Ger-many 15–16 April 2013.

STUDY VISIT — IRON GATE LIMES SITES

Starting from the Archaeological Park and ResearchCenter in Viminacium the project partners explored theIron Gate Gorge and its rich archaeological landscape,although some important Limes sites are not visible anymore due to the flooding of the Djerdap region and canonly be studied by archive material. The Serbian teamcolleagues guided and introduced us to the most im-portant Limes fort sites of Diana and Pontes and the re-mains of Traian’s famous stone bridge, close to Kladovo.The study visit provided an ideal occasion to talk aboutand exchange individual knowledge how to secure thefuture of Limes key-sites including physical interventions,effective reconsolidation including further risk preventionand sustainable tourism and visitor management.

Kick-off meeting Vienna (© A. Adamczyk)

Kick-off meeting Vienna (© A. Adamczyk) Fortification Diana/SRB (© A. Adamczyk)

Funerary monument Viminacium/SRB (© N. Mrdjic)

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SPECTACULAR OPENING OF THE RECONSTRUCTED AMPHITHEATRE

in VIMINACIUM, SERBIA

On May 18 2013 the new exhibition “Constantine andthe Edict of Milan in AD 313 — the Birth of Christianityin the Roman Provinces in Serbia” was opened duringa reception at the Archaeological Park and ResearchCenter Viminacium by the President of Serbia, TomislavNikolić. The event was attended by several ministersfrom the Serbian government, members of the diplo-matic corps including Prince Alexander Karađorđevićand Princess Catherine and ambassadors of otherDanube countries and Italy. The event was celebratedby an opera performance of Giuseppe Verdi�s AIDA inthe impressive, well preserved and partly reconstructedRoman amphitheatre in front of 2200 spectators.

CLOSING GAPS AND JOININGFORCES — DANUBE LIMES BRAND

NETWORKING ACTIVITIES

During the Kick-off Meeting in Vienna the Leadpartnerinvited a representative of the Dutch Limes Bureau incharge of the Lower Rhine Limes for UNESCO inscriptionto closely collaborate with the Danube Limes partners.

Our Italian partner, the province of Rimini provided alink to the major cultural heritage “Route of the Phoeni-cians“ which is closely related to the Roman heritageand offers a chance to enlarge our network further intothe Mediterranean. For the first time representativesfrom all European Limes countries including theDanube area met at the 11th Bratislava Group Meetingorganised by our Serbian partnern in the Academy ofSciences in Belgrade on 18 April 2013. Here projectpartners took the opportunity to present their DanubeLimes sections, exchange and capitalize on existingknowledge and link up with many other Limes WHmanagers. During the Forum Building Sciences 2013,organised by our colleagues from the Danube Univer-sity in Krems on 8 May 2013, a closer relationship withthe International Association of the Blue Shield and itspresident Mr. Karl Habsburg-Lothringen was agreed on.

Aida performance Viminacium amphitheatre (© N. Mrdjic)

Fortification Zeiselmauer/AT (© W. Kusché)

Protection of Cultural Property activities (© Col. H. Speckner)

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UPCOMING EVENTS

The 3rd Project Meeting will be held at the DanubeUniversity in Krems on 8–9 July 2013 concentrating onthe harmonization of national Limes Brand visionsamong partners. The Branding workshop will exploreand exchange best practise examples in presentingand managing archaeological (Limes) sites in- and out-side the partnership. From 16 to 18 September 2013the 1st Danube Limes Brand Strategy Conference willtake place in Bratislava, organised by the MonumentPreservation Authority Bratislava (ERDF PP2) and theKároly Róbert College Gyöngyös (ERDF PP3) in closecooperation with the ARGE Donauländer WorkingGroups on Culture and Tourism in the Danube region.The conference will include a visit to the Archaeologi-cal Park Carnuntum in Lower Austria and a river cruisefrom Bratislava to Komárom in Hungary touching onseveral Limes forts and museums in the area. Amonginternational, national and local stakeholders also representatives from two other SEE projects, “DanubeParks step 2.0“ and “TransDanube“ are invited to par-ticipate in the event.

Impressum: © SEE Danube Limes Brand Project; LP Institute for History, University of Vienna, Universitätsring 1, A – 1010 Vienna, communication manager: sonja.jilek@univie.ac.at

La Rotta dei Fenici (© A. Barone)

Bratislava Castle (© P. Chromek)