More than 100 researchers from 31 countries took part in the three-day conference, organised for the first time in an online format. The participants represented a wide range of disciplines, including economics, history, architecture, art, cultural studies, anthropology, education, conservation, literature, politics, sociology and management.

Plenary lectures were delivered, among others, by the Australian cultural economist Prof. David Throsby, the Lithuanian writer based in Canada Laimonas Briedis, and Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović, Secretary General of Europa Nostra.

The 6th edition of the Heritage Forum of Central Europe took place on 16–18 June 2021 under the multifaceted theme “Heritage and Development”.

The 6th Heritage Forum of Central Europe coincided with the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Visegrad Group. Its aim was to examine the relationship between heritage and development, a concept that until recently had been understood primarily in economic terms and equated with economic growth, although in reality it is a multidimensional notion.

The COVID-19 pandemic both compelled and facilitated a broader re-evaluation of these questions. In the social sciences, the concept of post-growth has been attracting increasing attention. To what extent can cultural heritage serve as a catalyst for development understood in entirely new categories and values? This was the central question guiding the 6th edition of the Forum.

ONLINE OPENING LECTURE: “Heritage and the Green Deal” – Sneška Quaedvlieg-Mihailović

Conference participants had the opportunity to attend more than 90 presentations addressing topics such as social integration, urban regeneration, the climate crisis and adaptation.

The Heritage Forum of Central Europe was organised by the International Cultural Centre

The Forum is organised under the auspices of the Working Group of Experts on Cultural Heritage of the Visegrad Group countries, which includes the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary, the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava, and the International Cultural Centre in Kraków.

The Heritage Forum of Central Europe is an international conference organised every two years by the International Cultural Centre. It brings together specialists from the Central European region, as well as researchers and experts from around the world working on Central European issues, to discuss questions related to cultural heritage.

The Kraków conference serves not only as a Central European voice in debates on the philosophy, management and protection of heritage, as well as its economic, social and political dimensions, but above all as an interdisciplinary platform for meetings and discussions on the relationships between the past and the present.

The previous editions of the Forum addressed the following themes: heritage and Central Europe (2011), the boundaries of heritage (2013), the city (2015), society (2017) and the environment (2019).

The Forum is organised under the auspices of the Working Group of Experts on Cultural Heritage of the Visegrad Group countries, which includes the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, the Prime Minister’s Office of Hungary, the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava, and the International Cultural Centre in Kraków.

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