Capitalising on the cultural heritage of Fortifications

The Central European landscape is rich with historical fortresses and fortified structures. This unique cultural heritage has been recognized by UNESCO and represents the special identity and attractiveness of Central Europe’s cities and regions.

It is a testament to European history, and marks important historical events and fallen empires, like the Prussian or AustroHungarian epoch. The Central Europe Programme 2007-2014 funding allows transnational cooperation to develop new instruments and solutions to capitalise on this heritage with several activities until the end of 2014.

It includes the development of touristic products and their market implementation, like a designated Culture Route “Forte Cultura” between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea. Of importance are the development of e-marketing instruments, implementation of the best practices in the monument management and monument economy, improvement of monument financing and generation of income. A special task is the gathering and recording of the best practices in the monument protection, restoration and conservation in scientific data banks.

The project invites all interested fortress organisations, public authorities and specialised institutions to join the project activities and to participate in the planned benefits for the future maintenance of the Central European fortified cultural heritage.

European dimensions and scientific contributions to the project

In times past, fortresses separated regions, today they join Europe together. The project aims at a trans-national political, economic and scientific cooperation for the transformation and integration of historical fortresses into modern European society.

Successful project start with a Kick-Off meeting in the fortress city Kostrzyn nad Odra / Poland

Project “Forte Cultura” being constituted The funding project of Central Europe Programme “FORTE CULTURA” started the trans-national cooperation with a kick-off meeting at a place that has a strong symbolic meaning for European integration: the city Kostrzyn nad Odrą on the German-Polish border.

Twelve Project partners from eight Central European countries and seven Associated Institutions from five nations started the ambitious working program, creating six work packages for the next two years.

Dr. Andrzej Kunt, mayor of the city of Kostrzyn nad Odra acting as Lead Partner, confirmed in his opening presentation, that this project stands for high-quality European cooperation to support the preservation of fortification heritage in the context of the demands of modern society. There is a high potential for new offers in cultural tourism.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
AND PARTNERSHIP

City of Kostrzyn nad Odra – experienced project Lead Partner

The fortress city of Kostrzyn nad Odra has experience in the realisation of INTERREG Projects since Poland joined the European Union in 2004. The first project under the lead of the city was the transnational cooperation project “Baltic Fort Route” in the Baltic Sea Region. Kostrzyn is responsible for the whole project realisation, the correct project contracting, financing and reporting.

Constitution of Steering Committee

During the kick-off meeting the 12 project partners set up a Project Steering Committee as a general assembly responsible for questions regarding project realisation, evaluation of results, discussion about main project outputs and its legal, financial and organisational obligations.

Technical Board

The Technical Board is the executive body between the Steering Committee Sessions. It has 6 members to monitor and support the project progress and to analyse, discuss and decide on the upto-date questions in the running phases of the project. The Technical Board reports on the project progress, advices on solutions to problems and submit proposals for decisions at the assembly.