Cultural heritage and creativity for sustainable and inclusive tourism in fortress monuments

26-29 March 2025, Forte di Bard (IT)

Europe is facing major challenges in terms of sustainability, identity and social commitment. Fortress monuments such as Forte di Bard (IT) can become catalysts for cultural and economic change. Fortresses offer an almost perfect environment for creative tourism due to their number and distribution in Europe, their size and construction, their history and associated traditions and their transformation from military objects to lively cultural centres.

The FORTE CULTURA Congress 2025 in the Forte di Bard fortress dealt, among other things, with the question of how Creative tourism can promote the sustainable development of fortified cultural heritage sites. It also examined how fortress managers, policy makers and cultural organisations can promote heritage conservation by applying the principles of the New European Bauhaus (NEB) with modern ecological and social needs.

Read more articles in the FORTE CULTURA Science Blog, z.B.:

• Creative tourism and fortified cultural heritage: a new approach to sustainable tourism
• The New European Bauhaus and the fortresses: How heritage can shape a sustainable future
• Creative tourism meets the New European Bauhaus: a shared vision for the fortified cultural heritage

List of conference presentations

Greetings

Presentations

Workshop on the mountain fortress project

As part of the FORTE CULTURA congress, a workshop was held on the “Mountain Fortresses Project”. The project, led by the Srebrna Góra Fortress (PL), aims to get mountain fortresses on the UNESCO World Heritage List. At the workshop, the participating partners Srebrna Góra Fortress (PL), Königstein Fortress, Saxony (DE), Forte di Bard (IT), Rocca D’Anfo Fortress (IT) and Forte di Fenestrelle (IT) presented their locations as well as their challenges and similarities as mountain fortresses.

Moderated by Dr. Marcin GORSKI (Technical Uiversity of Warsaw [PL] and member of FORTE CULTURA Scientific Committee), experienced experts on the subject of fortress heritage and the UNESCO World Heritage List complemented the workshop with specialist contributions:

Further non recorded presentations

• High mountain fortresses: Comparative analysis
  phd. hab. prof. Grzegorz PODRUCZNY, Prof. UAM, Faculty of History, Adam Mickiewicz University Poznań (PL)
• Introduction to the role of tourism in the World Heritage system
  phd ing. Katarzyna PAŁUBSKA, Faculty of Historical Sciences, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw (PL)
• The Finnish World Heritage Sites Interpretation Project
  Carita WILENIUS-RANTALA, Executive Director, Ehrensvärd Society, Suomenlinna UNESCO WHS, Helsinki (FI)

FORTE CULTURA General Assembly 2025

The FORTE CULTURA annual congress always includes a general meeting. You can find a detailed report in this article:

Excursion programme

This year’s excursion programme led to the Castello di Issogne with exciting insights into the history of the region. The subsequent lunch snack in the Maison BERTOLIN left nothing to be desired in terms of northern Italian cuisine.

Picture gallery

The FORTE CULTURA Congress 2025 at Forte di Bard was a successful event with a contrasting programme, lots of information, exciting discussions and the best Italian hospitality. We would like to thank our host Associazione Forte di Bard and in particular Cristiano Accornero for a great time.

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