A dozen experts from Spain, Germany, Italy, Latvia and the Czech Republic will examine on September 29 what strategies can be implemented to achieve the revitalization of Europe’s rural religious heritage. Through a digital meeting, the professionals will exchange their experiences on how to face the challenges that threaten the survival of Europe’s valuable cultural heritage. Depopulation, limited accessibility and sustainability of conservation seriously condition the future of a rural treasure of extraordinary value.
This is the 4th Interregional Experience Exchange Event (IEE), which this edition has been programmed under the title of Connecting heritage. The potential of cultural routes, greenways and slow mobility for the revitalization of rural religious heritage. . According to the meeting program, cultural routes, greenways and slow mobility offer “valuable opportunities” to reconnect rural religious heritage sites with their communities and improve their management and preservation.
The event will begin at 9.00 a.m. with a brief introduction by Chiara L.M. Occelli and Irene Ruiz Bazán, both from the Politecnico di Torino. The first intervention will be given by Barbara Ruiz-Bejarano, coordinator of the Medina Network and director of the Las Fuentes Foundation. The professor will speak for thirty minutes on the Medina Network and Muslim-friendly tourism. The rest of the presentations, up to a total of thirteen, will last until 13.00 hours, when the conclusions will be addressed.
The meeting’s organizers argue that cultural routes “reinforce cultural identity and promote tourism” while greenways integrate heritage into broader ecological and tourism networks. All of these strategies, the event’s program indicates, have a positive impact in rural areas where “accessibility remains a major challenge.” The project points to “good practices” that will contribute to the “preservation and revitalization of rural religious heritage.”
