Photo credits: Historical Centre of Turaida

Europe is home to rich and diverse cultural heritage, and each place has a story to tell. To celebrate this, the European Heritage Label was created to recognize the ongoing importance of cultural heritage sites that have played a significant role in Europe's shared history and values.

The Call offered the European Heritage Label Sites an opportunity to develop project proposals that would allow them to expand their work, while contributing to the Europe Heritage Days programme.

Following the assessment of this year’s applications, three grantees have been selected. The Historical Centre of Turaida, the church organisations who oversee the medieval murals in the Gemer and Malohont regions, and World War I Eastern Front Cemetery No. 123  proposed projects that have been chosen to receive grant awards.

The Historical Centre of Turaida, Latvia

The Turaida Museum Reserve will create a new educational platform – a website aimed at children and young people. The creation of this site will involve students and adolescents, who will work under the guidance of museum educators. It aims to offer an interactive and attractive virtual space with many "rooms" in which the museum buildings, walking paths, expositions and collection will come to life for online visitors.

World War I Eastern Front Cemetery No. 123, Poland

The Łużna Commune, overseeing the World War I Eastern Front Cemetery No. 123, have designed their project to begin with an invitation for primary school students to submit creative responses to an Interdisciplinary competition titled “Different Shades of the Past - In Search of a Common History", which seeks to inspire dialogue by creating an opportunity for reflection on the main values of the European Heritage Label: solidarity, freedom, tolerance, cultural and linguistic diversity. The winners will receive a visit to the EHL site. The second part of the project will involve an exhibition of works and the organization of a conference (in situ and online) concerning the site’s history, combining presentations of exhibitions owned by the Central of Historical Records in Warsaw and delivered in cooperation with International Cultural Center in Kraków during European Heritage Days in Łużna.

The medieval murals in the Gemer and Malohont regions, Slovak Republic

Twelve different localities in the region of Gemer and Malohont were awarded European Heritage Label status in 2022 in recognition of the significance of the medieval murals remaining in their churches. Their project intends to build the capacity of their organizational network, and together they will organize a European Heritage Days event in each of the regions. Local guides will also be invited to a lecture from experts which will allow them to streamline their knowledge about the EHL site, and they will then be certified as official guides. The primary outcome of the project will be publication of guidelines that will support guides in the future.