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