
More Resilient, Post-Pandemic Heritage
Interviews with partners gave insights into the project impact as well as the future of heritage.
Mostly located in rural and remote areas, historic castles, manors and estates (HCME) have the potential to stimulate rural and regional development and innovation. However, this requires a shift of paradigm in governance and support. By developing new policy instruments to unlock these assets, HCME could act as drivers for job creation, better education, improving life quality and reducing social inequalities. The partnership of Innocastle consists of four European regions, each addressing one policy instrument: The National Institute of Heritage in Romania, the Province of Gelderland in the Netherlands, University College Ghent in Belgium and the Provincial Government of Badajoz in Spain. National Trust from the UK will act as knowledge partner throughout the process and support all partners in remodeling their policies.
The partners will first compare the situations between the 5 countries and learn from each other. The process of improving the 4 policy instruments is divided in three activities:
1. A joint baseline survey on existing policies and practices. Read here about the methodology.
2. Study visits to each of the partner organisations, which will also include a themed seminar and opportunity for peer review. Read about the visits so far in Romania, Wales, Gelderland and Badajoz.
3. The development of regional action plans together with local actors to improve particular policy instruments, using the data collected.
Anticipated results
INNOCASTLE seeks to demonstrate the importance of partnership in the sustainable revitalisation and future-proofing of heritage sites. It will alert policy makers to the need for effective funding to enable heritage sites to become self-sufficient. INNOCASTLE will also highlight our shared European identity. The project will use interregional cooperation to develop new policies for heritage across four partner regions (Gelderland, Extremadura, Flanders and Romania). Each has a different emphasis but each will work towards improving the long-term sustainable development of HCME through 4 specific objectives:
€1,107,435.00
Environment and resource efficiency
The Regional Operational Program (ROP) 2014-2020 in Romania will be tackled by the National Institute of Heritage.
Specifically, investment priority 5.1 of the ROP refers to the “preservation, protection, promotion and development of the cultural heritage and identity”, with the objectives to stimulate the local economy by improving the overall condition of heritage sites in Romania. As such, this priority can finance the restoration and touristic promotion of built heritage.
The practice has shown that the ROP guides could be improved in order to better correlate with other related domains and current issues found in the field. Specifically:
Like all other policy instruments that are part of Innocastle, also Priority 5.1 needs to be more correlated to other regional development strategies which include or affect cultural heritage, reflect stakeholders’ needs and to develop comprehensive evaluation criteria for the economic impact on local communities.
The Decree on Immovable Heritage is an overall decree on monuments and landscapes elaborated by the Flemish Government. The Decree addresses the working instruments to protect and to manage immovable heritage in Flanders, such as:
The Belgian partner in Innocastle, University College Ghent will further investigate the degree from the perspective of historic castles, manors and estates to find improvement points within Innocastle. Several ideas are already identified:
The Extremadura Operational Programme has allocated EUR 2 billion euro of funding with the aim to stimulate economic growth and strengthen the civil society in the Extremadura region.
One of the investment objectives addressed (6.3.1) is to boost protection, promotion and development of cultural heritage. The main objective of this instrument is the valorization of cultural and natural heritage resources of the region.
The creation of cultural heritage itineraries focused on castles and fortifications that are located mainly in rural areas with a great natural value (including their physical or virtual recreation) is a priority for the promotion of sustainable tourism in the region and the improvement of the economic development of isolated rural areas.
The operational programme has several issues at implementation level due to different factors. The political situation at a national and regional level, delays in information and approval of budgets, the limitation of resources, the necessity of new solutions for adequate exploitation of castles and fortifications (both public and private).
INNOCASTLE will address a clear necessity in the region of Extremadura, the correct valorization and sustainable exploitation of the local cultural heritage.
The main objective of the Policy Programme “Culture and Heritage” is to enhance the conservation of protected heritage in the province of Gelderland in combination with suitable use and a better experience of the heritage involved.
The main goals of this policy programme are:
Owners of castles manors and estates in the Province of Gelderland, especially private ones, come forward with questions on economic viability, sustainability and financing the necessary measures.
At the same time, municipalities in the region are increasingly seeking the support of the province on applying the legislation and other rules on this important body of heritage.
The Province ofGelderland aims to investigate possible changes in the policy so that the needs of owners and municipalities could be met.
Interviews with partners gave insights into the project impact as well as the future of heritage.
Originally planned to take place in May 2020, a study visit to Flanders was organised online in several parts.
Together with FINCH and SHARE projects, and OMC chair Innocastle organized a webinar on best practices for resilient heritage and cohesive society.
The Innocastle Mid-term Conference took place online on the 24th of September 2020. It addressed the topic of Country House adaptation during COVID-19.
The Innocastle Baseline Survey is published! Have a look at the identified common characteristics of rural estates, policy recommendations and regional chapters
As part of the Interreg Europe funded project Innocastle, a baseline survey has been conducted in the four European regions on the state of policy instruments.
The focus of the webinar was on local projects, and how they are connected with certain policies in the area.
Three Gelderse estate zones hope to learn more about the role of the government in relation to others developing castles and estates.
Focus of the Landscape Park Bulskampveld is a combination of four different analysis of private, public and network cases.
The aim of learning cases will be to increase the role and change the national mentality of heritage in the region.