"Investing in our past to enable the future generations to understand the world that surrounds them": this is the spirit that inspired the Cultural Heritage Awards, which since 2002 have been given by the EU Commission and Europa Nostra (200 cultural NGOs based in The Hague) "to reward good practices in the preservation of the heritage on a continental scale". Ján Figel’, culture commissioner, announced today the five winners of the 2006 awards (accompanied by 10 thousand euros each) which will be given in Madrid next June. This year, different types of initiatives have stolen the limelight: "The awards are given to works that stand out in the protection of the many faces of the European cultural and artistic heritage: from the restoration of buildings and significant historical sites to the preservation of works of art and the recovery of decayed urban landscapes". Of the 214 entries received by Europa nostra, the runners-up were: the recovery of the ancient Ottoman baths of Omeriye in Nicosia (Cyprus); the restoration of 32 statues which used to decorate the ancient Via de la Plata in Estremadura (Spain); the cataloguing and exhibition of 142 thousand photos from the Edward Chambré Hardman Photographic Collection in Liverpool (United Kingdom); the postgraduate thesis of researcher Anna Sulimowska-Ociepka about the working-class quarters of Upper Silesia (Poland); finally, the Maisons paysannes de France, an association that studies and recovers rural heritage sites.
