EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards 2018

EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards 2018

On the eve of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 we would like to invite organisations, institutions and individuals to apply for the EU Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards 2018. Until October 1 you can present your candidature for this prestigious award that recognises the best achievements in conservation, research, dedicated service as well as education, training and awareness-raising. All the winners will be celebrated with cash and honorary prizes at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony in June in Berlin.

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The European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards is Europe’s top honour in the heritage field. The Prize celebrates and promotes best practices related to heritage conservation, management, research, education and communication. In this way, it contributes to raising awareness about heritage and challenges faced by the sector in the contemporary world; also, it promotes good practices, exchange of know-how on heritage’s protection, conservation and education. Winners are selected in four categories: conservation, research, dedicated service by individuals or organisations, as well as education, training and awareness-raising. Up to seven candidates are selected as Grand Prix laureates (they receive €10,000 each) and thirty receive a plaque or trophy. One of them is chosen in an online poll to receive the Public Choice Award.

Criteria for the assessment of entries include excellence in the work executed and preliminary research conducted, as well as respect for artistic, cultural and social value, setting, authenticity and integrity. Special attention will also be paid to sustainability, interpretation and presentation, educational work, funding and management, social responsibility, and audience development. Entries can be on a scale ranging from small to large, local to international.


2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage. On this occasion, the Jury of each Category will give special attention to any European dimension in a project. Among such dimensions that may be taken into account are: collaboration between organisations or individuals in two or more European countries on a particular project, contribution to a developing sense of European identity or European social cohesion, enrichment and deepening of symbolic meanings and aesthetic values drawn from European tradition.

Polish achievements have already be awarded nine times. Recently, in 2011 the Blue Lamb Granary in Gdańsk received an award in the “conservation” category. Szymon Modrzejewski was honoured with the Grand Prix 2011 for his dedicated service to protect and restore historical cemeteries in south-east Poland. The jury’s attention was caught also by the research of Bartosz M. Walczak (Zespoły fabryczno-mieszkalne w europejskim przemyśle włókienniczym, Łódź 2010 [Company Towns in European Textile Industry 1771-1914]) who was granted the award in 2013 and by educational programme of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews POLIN (award 2017).