The 7 Most Endangered Programme identifies endangered monuments and sites in Europe and mobilizes public and private partners on a local, national and European level to find a viable future for those sites. [1]
It was launched by Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute in January 2013. [2] [3]
The 7 Most Endangered Programme is inspired by a successful programme of the US National Trust for Historic Preservation, based in Washington. [4] It does not provide funding. Its aim is to serve as a catalyst for action and raise awareness. [5]
Entries can be submitted by Europa Nostra’s country representations, member and associate organisations as well as by established public and private bodies active in the heritage field located in countries where Europa Nostra is not yet represented.
An international advisory panel, comprising specialists in history, archaeology, architecture, conservation and finance, meet to discuss over the applications and shortlist the most endangered monuments and sites. The board of Europa Nostra reviews the list [6] which is then publicly announced during an annual congress.
Rescue missions to the sites included in the final list are then organised and the sites are visited. The results and recommendations of the rescue missions are summarised in reports that become available on the organisation's website. [1]
A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the UNESCO. World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, scientific or other forms of significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity".
English Heritage is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
Each county or unitary authority in the United Kingdom maintains a sites and monuments record or SMR, consisting of a list of known archaeological sites. Many SMRs are now developing into much broader historic environment records (HERs), including information on historic buildings and designed landscapes. Each record lists the location, type and period of site, along with a brief description and information on the location of more detailed sources of information such as site reports. This information is most commonly used to help inform decisions on the likelihood of new development affecting archaeological deposits. Government guidance requires local authorities to consider archaeology a material consideration in determining planning applications and the SMR aids this consideration.
Helsinki-Malmi Airport(IATA: HEM, ICAO: EFHF) was an airfield in Helsinki, Finland, located in the district of Malmi, 5.4 NM north-north-east of the city centre. It was opened in 1936. Until the opening of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport in 1952, it was the main airport of Helsinki and of Finland. After that, it was used for general aviation and flight training, and remained the second-busiest airport in Finland, as measured by the number of landings, after Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The city of Helsinki, which owns the land the airport is located on, terminated its lease agreement for aviation purposes in December 2019, and its remaining runway was closed in March 2021, but several legal complaints are pending in courts. The city plans to use the land for the construction of approximately 25,000 new apartments starting in 2024. The airfield area, including the runways and taxiways, was opened for public recreation in February 2022.
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) is an amenity society founded by William Morris, Philip Webb, and others in 1877 to oppose the destructive 'restoration' of ancient buildings occurring in Victorian England. "Ancient" is used here in the wider sense rather than the more usual modern sense of "pre-medieval."
The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, established in 1908, is a Welsh Government sponsored body concerned with some aspects of the archaeological, architectural and historic environment of Wales. It is based in Aberystwyth.
European Union culture policies aim to address and promote the cultural dimension of European integration through relevant legislation and government funding. These policies support the development of cultural activity, education or research conducted by private companies, NGO's and individual initiatives based in the EU working in the fields of cinema and audiovisual, publishing, music and crafts.
The Heritage Council is an organisation created by the Irish government to "engage, educate and advocate to develop a wider understanding of the vital contribution that our heritage makes to our social, environmental and economic well-being."
The Visoki Dečani Monastery is a medieval Serbian Orthodox Christian monastery located near Deçan, Kosovo. It was founded in the first half of the 14th century by Stefan Dečanski, King of Serbia. It is often considered to be one of the most endangered European cultural heritage sites and with a designation of Cultural Monument of Exceptional Importance.
Cultural heritage management (CHM) is the vocation and practice of managing cultural heritage. It is a branch of cultural resources management (CRM), although it also draws on the practices of cultural conservation, restoration, museology, archaeology, history and architecture. While the term cultural heritage is generally used in Europe, in the US the term cultural resources is in more general use specifically referring to cultural heritage resources.
Europa Nostra is a pan-European Federation for Cultural Heritage, representing citizens' organisations that work on safeguarding Europe's cultural and natural heritage. It is the voice of this movement to relevant international bodies, in particular the European Union, the Council of Europe and UNESCO. It has consultative status with UNESCO and is recognised as an NGO partner.
Historic England is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with protecting the historic environment of England by preserving and listing historic buildings, scheduling ancient monuments, registering historic parks and gardens and by advising central and local government.
An annual Heritage at Risk Register is published by Historic England. The survey is used by national and local government, a wide range of individuals and heritage groups to establish the extent of risk and to help assess priorities for action and funding decisions. This heritage-at-risk data is one of the UK government's official statistics.
The Amphitheatre of Durrës is a Roman amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Durrës, Albania. Construction began under the emperor Trajan in the 2nd century AD and it was destroyed twice by earthquakes in the 6th and 10th centuries. It is the largest Roman amphitheatre ever built in the Balkan Peninsula, once having a capacity of 20,000 people.
The World Monuments Watch is a flagship advocacy program of the New York–based private non-profit organization World Monuments Fund (WMF) that is dedicated to preserving the historic, artistic, and architectural heritage around the world.
The National Theatre of Albania was the main theatre in Tirana, Albania. In March 2020, the National Theatre of Albania was selected by Europa Nostra among the 7 most endangered monuments in Europe, as an exceptional example of modern Italian architecture from the 1930s and one of the most prominent cultural centers in Albania, facing impending threat of demolition. On 17 May 2020, the National Theatre building was demolished.
The European Heritage Alliance 3.3, an informal European sectoral platform composed of 30 European or international networks and organisations active in the wider field of cultural heritage, was launched in June 2011 on the occasion of the European Heritage Congress 2011 organised by Europa Nostra in Amsterdam.
Picasso's Regjeringskvartalet murals are a series of murals designed by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso in the late 1950s and the early 1970s. He designed five murals for the Regjeringskvartalet buildings in central Oslo, Norway. The designs by Picasso were executed in concrete by Norwegian artist Carl Nesjar, and were Picasso's first attempt at monumental concrete murals. The buildings onto which the murals were executed are known as the 'H-Block' or Highrise (1959) and 'Y-Block' (1968); they were designed by the Norwegian architect Erling Viksjø. The largest mural, The Fishermen (1970) is on the façade of Y-Block. Picasso would later create works in a similar vein in Barcelona and Stockholm.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) maintains a central database of the architectural heritage of the Republic of Ireland covering the period since 1700 in complement to the Archaeological Survey of Ireland, which focuses on archaeological sites of the pre-1700 period. As of 2022, there are over 50,000 records in the database, including buildings, monuments, street furniture and other structures. It does not cover Northern Ireland.
For two years, artists and activists in Tirana, Albania, demonstrated to protect the historic National Theatre building from being demolished.