European History around the World: Europa

Showing posts with label Europa. Show all posts

Sunday, 23 October 2022

The European Heritage Label Sites of 2022, err 2021

I am already very late to the party, but the new European Heritage Label Sites had been announced in late April 2022, whichs of course means these are the sites inscribed in 2021. You get it? The following sites got the label:

Vučedol Culture Museum and Archaeological Site (Croatia)
Archaeological Site of Nemea (Greece)
Thracian Art in Eastern Rhodopes: Aleksandrovo Tomb (Bulgaria)
Almadén Mining Park (Spain)
Echternach Saint Willibrord Heritage (Luxembourg)
Historic Centre of Turaida (Latvia)
Medieval wall painting in Gemer and Malohont Regions (Slovakia)
The Oderbruch (Germany)
Palace of the European Commission of the Danube (Romania)
Seminaarinmäki Campus - Equality in Education (Finland)
Ventotene (Italy)
MigratieMuseumMigration (MMM) (Belgium)

That means that the following pre-selected sites did not get the label:

Grand Commandery Alden Biesen, Belgium
Fulda and Petersberg – Centers of the Carolingian Education Reform, Germany
The Wellspring of Multilingualism - Baška Tablet (Bašćanska ploča) and the Complex of the Church of St Lucy, Croatia
Mariapocs National Shrine, Hungary
Land of Water, Land in Water. The Po River Delta and Venice, Italy
The Address of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops, November 18, 1965, Poland
Lech Hill with Gniezno Cathedral, Poland
Lines of Torres Vedras, Portugal
ASTRA Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization, Romania

Comparing the final list with those pre-selected sites earlier released and discussed (see here) some names had been changed. For Bulgaria and Slovakia those are the first inscribed sites. The only countries without inscribed sites are now Cyprus, Denmark, Ireland, Malta and Sweden, but if I remember right none of them has ever nominated a site. Like I have said before, some of these new sites are definitely worthy of the site while other seem to be strange selections. That is primarily due to the criteria of the selection which looks more closely at the narrative than the site per se. The Medieval wall painting in Gemer and Malohont Regions and the Oderbruch are for sure interesting sites, but I think that their stated European significance could be illustrated by many other sites as well. On another note many of these sites will be very difficult to collect on cards or stamps. So far I only have cards of Echternach and the Oderbruch plus a stamp about Ventotene. Any help is very welcome. Using the label Eurorpean Heritage Label on the right side you can always see my collection. There you will also find short information about all sites. Let's see which sites will be pre-selected in the next round. Those can be expected in late 2023.

Grand Commandery Alden Biesen - not inscribed

Echternach Saint Willibrord Heritage - inscribed!

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

The European Heritage Label Sites of 2019

During these days it is nice to see that a few things actually happen as planned, but I was really surprised to see that a few days ago the new European Heritage Label Sites were selected. It is always nice to see which ones are selected and to read the reasons for the selection in the panel report, as most of the sites are completely unknown to me and for the most of them it is also not easy to find informations otherwise.

The selected sites are:

Archaeological Area of Ostia antica (Italy)

Underwater Cultural Heritage of the Azores (Portugal)

Living Heritage of Szentendre (Hungary)

Colonies of the Benevolence (Belgium, Netherlands)

Kynžvart Chateau – Place of diplomatic meetings (Czech Republic)

"Zdravljica" - the Message of the European Spring of Nations (1848) (Slovenia)

Site of Remembrance in Łambinowice (Poland)

Werkbund Estates in Europe 1927-1932 (Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Poland)

Lieu de Mémoire au Chambon-sur-Lignon (France)

"Three Brothers" (Latvia)

This brings the number of European Heritage Label Sites up to 48. Latvia now has its first site and Poland is the country with the most sites (six) followed by France and Germany (five each). It will be very hard to find cards of all of them, but at least of a few of them I have seen that there are stamps. So far I only have a card about the Werkbund Estate in Stuttgart (Germany), so any help with the sites is very welcome. For some of them I however have not any hope to ever get a card. Using the label "=European Heritage Label" you can see my complete collection of these cards and stamps and read about their European significance, both for the new sites and the older ones.

Stamp about the Congress of Vienna connected to
both the Colonies of Benevolence and the Kynžvart Chateau

When new sites are selected, this also means that some pre-selected sites do not get the label.

These applications failed:
Vučedol Culture Museum and Archaeological Site (Croatia)
Columbus Sites (Portugal, Spain)
Vizsolyi Bible Commemorative Site (Hungary)
Sagunto (Spain)
Castello del Valentino (Italy)
Coudenberg Palace (Belgium)
Manor House Dolná Krupá (Slovakia)
Lines of Torres Vedras (Portugal)
Polish National Film, TV and Theatre School named after Leon Schiller in Lodz (Poland)

Personally I think it is especially sad for the Coudenberg Palace, not only because I have a card of that one but also because they write as follows:

"The Coudenberg Palace meets all the criteria required for the European Heritage Label. However, under Article 14.4 of Decision 1194/2011/EU on the European Heritage Label it is not possible to award the Label to Coudenberg Palace as the Colonies of Benevolence site has also been recommended for the Label and, according to this article, priority must be given to transnational sites."

The Columbus Sites, Sagunto and the Lines of Torres Vedras also represent interesting parts of European history, but as they clearly write in the report that is not enough. The European narrative of the sites is more important.

Coudenberg Palace in Brussels, Belgium

Sunday, 16 February 2020

The One Big Jubilee of 2020

2020 is once again a year full of jubilees. On the page above you can find a small list of jubilees, which I think are noticeable, but the question about the one big jubilee is much more interesting, also when you look at stamps. 2017 had the Reformation, 2018 the End of World War I and 2019 the Moon Landing (and Gandhi). But what is the One for 2020? I was looking through the stamp programmes of some countries I collect and the three big jubilees you see very often are the 250th birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, the 75th anniversary of the End of World War II and 75 years United Nations. To choose the One between these three I made a small list:

Notes: These are by far not all countries, but just as I said some of the ones I collect and for which I found stamp programmes. Jersey, the Netherlands and the USA got an asterisk, because their programmes are not complete. Jersey and the Netherlands just announced the programmes for the first half of 2020 and the USA usually add some stamps to their programme during the year. Gibraltar got a question mark for Beethoven, as they plan a set about Birth Anniversaries in September, which might or might not include Beethoven. The World War II issues of Israel, Poland and Ukraine finally got an asterisk, because they do not commemorate the End of World War II, but something connected. Israel will get and Poland got a stamp about the camp liberation and Ukraine will get a "Never again" stamp.
EDIT: The Birth Anniversaries set from Gibraltar was moved to March and will feature Beethoven along Florence Nightingale and Rosalind Franklin.

So with this list my personal winner is Beethoven and I already created a new page at the top, in which I will try to keep an updated list of all Beethoven stamps this year and show my collection of these stamps, although I will not try to get all of them. From time to time some of these stamps might also get extra posts, but I am not sure about that yet. World War II however will also not remain unnoticed here. I have already planned something for that.

So far Beethoven stamps were already released in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Serb Post), Germany, Guernsey, North Macedonia and Ukraine. Portugal will follow on 26th February. This is actually quite interesting, as Beethoven was just born at the end of 1770. Guernsey in fact planned something very interesting for the Beethoven Year, as they will issue four stamps at different dates, which will create a single image. Germany also issued or will issue the stamp in actually every possible form. A gummed version, a self-adhesive booklet and even a souvenir sheet were issued already on 2nd January and a self-adhesive coil will be issued in March. I am sure a prepaid envelope will also follow sometime this year. Also some special postmarks were already available and many more will surely follow. My favourite one so far is this one from Hiddenhausen, which highlights that Beethoven's 9th is actually used as Anthem of Europa.

Monday, 1 January 2018

European History in a Small Village (Luxembourg)

Schengen is a small village near the meeting place of the French, German and Luxembourgian border. In 1985 representatives from Belgium, France, West Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands came together in Schengen to sign the Schengen Agreement, which led to the creation of Europe's borderless Schengen Area.

The European Museum in Schengen was opened in 2010 and shows exhibitions about the Schengen Agreement. In 2017 the Village of Schengen got the European Heritage Label.