Every year, as part of the V4 Heritage Academy programme, around twenty people from across the region come to Kraków to take part in a training course comprising an introductory theoretical section and a practical workshop building on this, based on joint visits to selected UNESCO World Heritage sites in a different V4 country each year. The workshops focus on analysing the issues facing a given site and preparing a preliminary assessment.
In 2015, the course “Management of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Visegrad Countries” was held from 13 to 19 July and was dedicated to UNESCO-listed sites in Slovakia. The course lecturers were participants in the meetings of the V4 States’ Working Group of Experts on Cultural Heritage, including Dr Tamás Fejérdy from ICOMOS Hungary, Barbara Fogarasi from the Gyula Forster National Centre for Cultural Heritage Management in Budapest, and Miloš Dudaš and Ľubica Pinčiková from the Office for the Protection of Monuments of the Slovak Republic.
The main theme of the course was the cultural heritage of Banská Štiavnica. Participants were able to learn about the town’s history and monuments, as well as the numerous remains of the mining culture that developed here over the centuries, located in its vicinity. Situated in the heart of Slovakia, the town is one of the country’s most valuable cultural heritage sites. At the same time, its remote location makes it difficult to promote to tourists. Although many of Banská Štiavnica’s historic buildings have undergone extensive conservation work in recent years, the majority still remain in a state requiring renovation.