Spain has won more prestigious European awards than any other country and is at the forefront when it comes to preserving its heritage. Our presentation of the candidates for Europa Nostra’s «People’s Jury Prize» for 2021 continues. You can vote for your favorites among the 24 exciting conservation and dissemination projects until 5 September. The prize, which is supported by the EU, is awarded to projects that, in an excellent but quite different way, safeguards Europe’s common cultural heritage. This year was the 19th time the prize was awarded, no country has in these years run away with as many of the awards as Spain.
This year’s winners come from 18 countries and include both individuals and large projects – from an almost 80-year-old Italian woman who makes the most exquisite lace, to a large-scale project to restore the park at Fredensborg Castle in Denmark. In 2021, Spain won awards in the categories Conservation, Research, Dedicated service and Education, training and awareness-raising. Among these winners, maybe you will find ideas for excursions to new places and destinations?
ART-Risk: Modern technology preserves the past better
Europa Nostra awards prizes in four categories: Conservation, Research, Dedicated service as well as Education, training and awareness-raising. In the Research category, Spain also walked away with one of this year’s awards. ART-Risk is a project that uses artificial intelligence to assess risk and to implement preventive conservation measures at the right time – before the decay is irreversible and/or restoration becomes disproportionately expensive.
The Spanish state and the EU’s Regional Development Fund have contributed funding to the project, which develops free software available to help decision-makers assess risk factors and preserve urban cultural heritage as effectively as possible. Put another way: The idea behind the project is that scarce resources should be used purposefully and utilized in the best possible manner.
To achieve this ambitious goal, the tool is rooted in established scientific knowledge in a number of disciplines: Chemists, architects, archaeologists, conservators, art historians, geologists, biologists, mathematicians and computer science expertise from universities and prominent conservation organizations in several countries have helped develop the software. Overall, this will enable decision-makers to make better assessments and take the right actions at the right time.
Factors such as modern urban planning and the architectural and cultural values of the conservation purpose are included in the decision support, as are environmental and climate considerations as well as socio-economic conditions. You can read more about ART Risk here: https://www.upo.es/investiga/art-risk-service/art-risk3/index_en.html.
The People’s Jury: Vote for your favorites
But the last of the Europa Nostra Prizes for 2021 has not yet been awarded. Until 5 September 2021, you can help decide which of the 24 prize winners will be awarded the People’s Jury Prize for this year’s best European conservation project. You can find a presentation of the candidates and can vote here: https://vote.europanostra.org/.
You must vote on three projects, but only one from each country. You give three points to your favorite project, two to what you think is the second-best and one point to your third and final candidate. Following your vote on Europa Nostra’s website, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your vote. On 23 September, the winner of this year’s People’s Jury Prize will be announced. Do you have a Spanish favorite for this prize?
Find Your Spain!
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