The Provincial Council of A Coruña (Diputación de A Coruña) in Galicia, Spain, invited experts and best practices from across Europe to Ferrol to promote the development of the significant […]

San Marino is one of the oldest republics in the world. The small state in the southwest of the Italian province of Emilia-Romagna also possesses a pronounced fortress heritage, some […]

Fort Gorgast was built at the end of the 19th century and is an outer fort of the former Küstrin Fortress (Kostrzyn nad Odrą, PL). The Prussian Biehler fort is […]

“#1 Barrier Less” is a funding program of the Aktion Mensch lottery that supports inclusive projects with up to €5,000. After FORTE CULTURA has already been able to implement two […]

Around 35 members and guests from seven countries took part in the General Assembly, which was held online. In addition to the detailed reports from the Executive Board and the […]

Josefstadt Fortress is located in Jaroměř, in eastern Bohemia, near the Polish border at the confluence of the Aupa and Mettau rivers into the Elbe. It was built in 1780-87 […]

One of the largest fortresses in Europe now complements the FORTE CULTURA stations in Poland. The Modlin fortress system is located 30 minutes north of Warsaw at the strategically important […]

As European Capital of Culture 2022, Kaunas was the venue for the EFFORTS Europe Annual Congress 2022. Fortress experts from 10 countries came together to talk about European cooperation and […]

Since its launch on 6 April at the FORTE CULTURA Fortress Conference in Terezín (CZ), around 100 fortress events in more than 15 countries took part in the European Fortress […]

Terezín is one of around 50 fortified ideal towns in Europe. Terezín, named after Empress Maria Theresa, was built by the Habsburgs against Prussia in 1780-90 in the area where […]

The Rastatt Museum of Military History (WGM) is located in the south wing of the Residenzschloss in Rastatt and deals with modern German military history. Covering an area of around […]

Following the successful completion of the Aktion Mensch project “Durchblick – Germersheim Erkennen,” the city of Germersheim has now received a second grant to further reduce barriers and expand inclusive […]

EFFORTS and FORTE CULTURA form a great network of fortress monuments. But above all, this is a network of people, of experts from different fields of fortress heritage. When these […]

Forte Marghera, located on the bridge to the lagoon city of Venice, provided a worthy setting for the conference, which brought together fortress experts from Italy, Finland, Germany, Poland, Croatia, […]

Alsace Destination Tourisme (AD) is the travel agency of the European Community of Alsace and is responsible for the development and promotion of tourism, especially in cross-border co-operation. Due to […]

Youth exchange and inclusion was the theme of this year’s symposium on the Upper Rhine. A good 30 representatives of the Upper Rhine fortress monuments gathered in the town hall […]

In September 2022, the study tour led to the fascinating fortress heritage around the Bay of Kotor, with fortification structures of the Venetians, the Ottomans, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Second […]

A culturally, ecologically and scientifically open concept for the cultural heritage of fortress monuments VENICE – FORTE MARGHERA | 15-16 September 2022 “Frontier places and European cooperation”. This theme, which […]

The Interreg – IPA CBC project FORTITUDE reached its crowning conclusion in Bosnia. The event presented the outstanding results of the project partners in the field of regional and cross-border […]

As part of a project funded by Aktion Mensch in the “#1 Barrier less” programme, a fortress tour for blind and visually impaired people was set up in collaboration with […]

Originally planned for 2020, the FORTE CULTURA study tour with Dr. Hans-Rudolf Neumann could only be carried out now due to the pandemic. The study tour led from Yerevan to […]

During the International Expert Conference in Terezín, FORTE CULTURA officially designated the Ukrainian fortress Medzhybizh as a full member of the network. The fortress on the banks of the Bug […]

The Terezín International Fortress Conference aims to draw attention to today’s challenges for the cultural heritage of fortified monuments and to present best practices in cross-border cooperation, projects and networking.

From 4-6 March, the Targi Turystyki International Tourism Fair took place in the stadium in Wroclaw (PL). FORTE CULTURA was present at the Königstein Fortress stand as well as at […]

The Abri de Hatten is located in Hatten in Alsace, approx. 50 km from Strasbourg and 40 km from Karlsruhe. Abri means shelter, which is a bit of an understatement […]

FORTE CULTURA, in partnership with the city of Germersheim, has received funding of €5,000 from Aktion Mensch. Within the framework of the “#1 Barrier Less” initiative, the Germersheim fortress will […]

Reintegration, refurbishment and upgrading of the tourist functions of Dömitz Fortress Project partner: Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology, Municipality of Dömitz, FORTE CULTURA e.V. Network of the European […]

The Prague Vyšehrad National Cultural Monument becomes the first FORTE CULTURA member in the Czech Republic. The fortress above the Vltava River offers a beautiful view over the Czech capital […]

The Bundesbank bunker in Cochem was a carefully guarded and camouflaged secret of the FRG for decades. During the Cold War, 15 billion Deutschmarks were stored here on around 1,500 […]

Now that the municipality of Bellheim has joined the FORTE CULTURA network, a large section of the Queich line has become a new stop on the European Cultural Route. The […]

29 members and guests from 7 countries met at   the 2021 FORTE CULTURA General Assembly at Königstein Fortress (Saxony). Under the leadership of Dirk Röder, the Executive Board and Scientific […]

As part of the Interreg – IPA CBC project FORTITUDE a specialist workshop on the subject of heritage and promotion was held in the fortress city of Karlovac in October under […]

In Bergen op Zoom came EFFORTS with Liberation Route Europe and FORTE CULTURA to discuss the role of fortresses in the Second World War. Fortresses were often used as concentration […]

Under the title “Reintegration, renovation and upgrading of the tourist functions of Dömitz Fortress”, students from Warsaw University of Technology visited Dömitz Fortress at the beginning of the winter semester. […]

The fortified city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch for short) is the capital of the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant and boasts an extraordinary fortified heritage with its city walls and citadel. […]

The Four à Chaux in Lembach is an underground fortification of the Maginot Line from the 20th century. Managed and organised by the Association des Amis de la Ligne Maginot […]

FORTE CULTURA meets renew Europe in the fortress and confirmation town of Ziegenhain. At the end of August, the town of Ziegenhain and the Renew Europe political group took the […]

The Upper Rhine region is one of the European regions with the most fortified monuments from 2000 years of history. Since the fortified town of Germersheim joined FORTE CULTURA in […]

Online evaluation conference on European best practice 6. Mai 2021, Pula (HR), hosted by FORTE CULTURA and Juraj Dobrila Universität in Pula (HR) The joint scientific committee FORTE CULTURA / […]

The European Fortress Summer 2021 was launched at a press conference in Germersheim on 15 April. The campaign developed by FORTE CULTURA in 2018 to market summer events in fortresses […]

On the initiative of the fortress town of Germersheim, supported by the PAMINA Eurodistrict and the Baden-Alsace-Palatinate Tourist Association (Vis-à-Vis), FORTE CULTURA has developed a fortress flyer with a map, […]

We welcome the regional fortress group “Fortresses and defence history on the Upper Rhine 1929-1999” with the Dettenheim Bunker Museum, the Hausach Bunker Tour, the Hornisgrinde Bunker, the Neumühl Camouflage […]

With the signing of the membership application by Mayor Erich Spamer, the town of Büdingen has be- come the latest FORTE CULTURA member. The Upper Hessian fortress town not only […]

Sandomierz is located on the western bank of the Vistula in the Holy Cross Voivodeship. The formerly fortified old town with its central town hall square is home to buildings […]

With the signing of the membership application by Mayor Erich Spamer, the town of Büdingen becomes the newest FORTE CULTURA member. The Upper Hessian fortress town not only features a […]

In a cross-border cooperation, the Elbe fortresses Grauerort, Dömitz, Magdeburg, Torgau, Dresden, Pirna, Stolpen, Königstein, Terezín, and Prague have developed and financed new FORTE CULTURA marketing tools. An attractive image […]

The Polish town of Dęblin is located east of the Vistula River in the Lublin Voivodeship. Commissioned by Russia, the Ivangorod Fortress was constructed starting in 1832 and became one […]

The Belgian partner network EFFORTS held its annual congress in 2020 as an online event. Under the patronage of the cities of Oudenaarde (BE) and Šibenik (HR), around 60 members […]

FORTE CULTURA Vice President Agnieszka Żurawska-Tatala visited ten Polish fortress sites during a one-week contact tour to introduce them to the FORTE CULTURA Cultural Route. Her itinerary included Modlin, Warsaw, […]

On Open Monument Day 2020, there were once again many exciting monuments to discover. Due to the COVID-19 situation, numerous sites innovatively invited visitors to take part virtually. Our member […]

As part of the campaign “FORTE CULTURA – Fortress of the Week,” one full member fortress is featured each week through several posts on social media. The aim of the […]

The European Fortress Day (EFD) is organized by the FORTE CULTURA partner EFFORTS (European Federation of Fortified Sites) and will take place virtually in 2020 with a new concept. European […]

The application for certification of FORTE CULTURA® as a “Cultural Route of the Council of Europe” was submitted in Luxembourg just in time for the deadline. FORTE CULTURA® is thus […]

The Srebrna Gora fortress is the highest mountain fortress in Europe. Built between 1765 and 1777, it reinforced the defence of the Prussian state borders in Lower Silesia. The Silberberg […]

The European Federation of Fortified Sites (EFFORTS) network, based in Brussels, was founded in 2017 in the Spandau Citadel. As a lobby organisation, EFFORTS is the interface between European institutions […]

At this year’s virtual Annual General Meeting, far-reaching resolutions were passed that will have a lasting impact on the development of our network and cultural routes. The most striking change […]

FORTE CULTURA is now using social media to increase its reach Facebook and Instagram. While the Instagram account is aimed more at the general public, the Facebook account is more […]

The globally significant era of the Reformation and the development of early modern fortress architecture, although separated in time, belong to a shared historical epoch and influenced one another. These […]

The network office provides a comprehensive information and strategy paper on dealing with the “C19 consequences” in fortified monuments. It contains information and recommendations for ensuring the safest possible conditions […]

The Berlin-based association organizes guided tours and excursions to architectural remnants from the Cold War era (barracks, airfields, and bunker complexes).

Fort Grauerort, a Prussian fortress pearl on the Elbe, was built in the 19th century and developed into an attractive cultural location in the Hanseatic city of Stade under the […]

At the end of February, representatives of the fortresses in Stade, Königstein, Terezín (CZ), Torgau, Pirna, Magdeburg and Dresden (here Staatliche Schlösser, Burgen und Gärten Sachsen gGmbH) as well as […]

The Berlin-based association organises guided tours and excursions to architectural legacies from the Cold War era (barracks, airfields and bunkers). The association is also committed to preserving the most modern […]

The Royal Museum of the Armed Forces in Brussels was an impressive venue for the Liberation Routes Europe (LRE) Annual Conference and Expo 2020. Dirk Röder represented FORTE CULTURA®. In […]

In memory and remembrance of the many victims of the last major German offensive in the West, known as “Unternehmen NORDWIND”, 75 years ago, 18 fortifications on both sides of […]

Rüsselsheim Fortress is located directly on the River Main and is now the second former Hessian state fortress in our network after Ziegenhain. The fortress is home to the Rüsselsheim […]

Dömitz Fortress is widely known along the Elbe. What is far less well known is that the fortress is actually the citadel of the former fortified ideal town of Dömitz, […]

In late August 2019, the historic Petrovaradin Fortress in Novi Sad, Serbia, hosted an interdisciplinary international conference titled “Fortresses of Tomorrow: Balance between Cultural Heritage Safeguarding and Entertainment.”

The fortified city of Antwerp hosted this year’s general meeting of EFFORTS (European Federation of Fortified Sites), during which Dirk Röder (European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network e.V.) was […]

Fortress monuments and the Second World War have many points of contact. The European cultural route “Liberation Route Europe”, certified  by the Council of Europe in 2019, leads along remembrance […]

The Polish curator of the FORTE CULTURA® Scientific Advisory Board, Marcin Gorski, gave the introductory lecture during the symposium “One Hundred Years of Cologne’s Green Lung – From Historical Defence […]

Following on from the discussions at the annual meeting of the cultural routes in Sibiu, representatives of the Routes of Reformation and FORTE CULTURA® met in Berlin to discuss interfaces […]

Ziegenhain is not only an impressive fortress town and therefore a stop on the FORTE CULTURA cultural route, it is also part of the GrimmHeimat and Rotkäppchenland network, touches on […]

Ohrid is a town in the south-west of the Republic of North Macedonia on Lake Ohrid on the border with Albania. The town is known for its medieval churches and […]

Rainer Nitsche, Deputy Mayor of Magdeburg in Department III Economy, Tourism and Regional Cooperation, opened the “2nd Elbe Fortress Cultural Heritage Forum”, which was attended by the Mayor of Dömitz […]

Around 80 representatives  of  European  cultural routes, the Cultural Routes Institute from Luxembourg and the EPA* member states met for the annual meeting of the Council of Europe’s cultural routes in Sibiu, Romania.

Author: Dr. Hans-Rudolf Neumann As part of a FORTE CULTURA pilot tour to Malta and Gozo, initial contacts were established with the Maltese state heritage organization HERITAGE MALTA. The participants […]

Representatives of the Chinese city of Shouzhou, the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network, ECCOFORT and ICOFORT signed a memorandum of understanding in Spandau Citadel on the development of friendly and cooperative relations for fortress tourism and marketing.

This year’s symposium focussed on cross-border cooperation between the fortress monuments on the Upper Rhine. The first results of the “Vis-á-Vis” (Baden-Alsace-Palatinate) tourism community’s project to develop regional tourism modules […]

Under the leadership of Koblenz’s Head of Cultural Affairs Dr Margit Theis-Scholz, the workshop brought together around 20 interdepartmental stakeholders to discuss the future of Koblenz Fortress in connection with […]

How can the 25 historic fortresses along the Elbe support each other in marketing themselves to tourists? This was the key question at a  conference that brought together 15 representatives of important Elbe fortifications from Germany and the Czech Republic at Königstein Fortress.

Four long-standing tour guides from the town of Germersheim have successfully completed their qualification as tour guides with a FORTE CULTURA® certificate. To mark the occasion, Mayor Marcus Schaile presented […]

On the initiative of our member La Línea de la Concepcíon (ES), representatives of fortress monuments and tourism professionals from the Campo de Gibraltar tourism region met for the first […]

Boyen Fortress was built from 1843 as a Prussian ring fortress in what is now Giżycko, formerly Lötzen, and was one of the most powerful fortresses in Masuria.

The conference formed the framework for the general meeting of the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network.

The International Tourism Exchange Berlin once again offered a good opportunity for an exchange with network members, potential co-operation partners for fortress tourism and fortress marketing from all over the world.

The Campo de Gibraltar stand at Spain’s largest international travel trade fair in Madrid was very busy. José Juan Franco Rodríguez, mayor of our network member La Línea de La […]

Torgau is the only large fortress system in Saxony that has been partially preserved.

Around 200 participants from over 20 countries met in Görlitz for the annual meeting of the European Institute of Cultural Routes.

The European Fortress Summer 2018 came to a close with the Cologne Fortress Days at the end of September. 18 fortress monuments from 9 countries have taken part in the […]

Mayor José Juan Franco Rodríguez signed the membership documents in mid-October, making his town of La Línea de la Concepción the first Spanish member of the network. The town is […]

In Turin, fortress experts from 19 countries presented their progress and findings in the fields of historical research, building research, georeferencing, digital heritage, culture and management as well as concept […]

Around 40 experts, tour guides and representatives of fortified monuments gathered in Germersheim at the beginning of July, including fortress cities such as Ulm, Landau (DE), Wissembourg, Strasbourg (FR), Feste Emperor Wilhelm II at Mutzig (FR)

On the occasion of the European Cultural Heritage Year 2018, the Directorate General for Cultural Heritage Rehinland-Palatinate organized the “European Day for the Preservation of Monuments” in Trier together with […]

The general meeting of the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network e.V. elected its new board at Rosenberg Fortress.

On the 24th of April the European Fortress Summer 2018 was ceremoniously opened on the fortress Rosenberg.

During the theme week, selected fortresses were presented on the Sharing Heritage Instagram page, including Königstein, Ehrenbreitstein and Kufstein.

ECCOFORT is acting as lead applicant for a new project application for the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE programme.