04.15.08
World Heritage Day forum – Trinity College Dublin – Fri 18 April
The Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at Trinity College
Dublin will mark ‘World Heritage Day’, Friday, 18th April 2008.
ICOMOS – The International Council on Monuments and Sites, is hosting
International Day for Monuments and Sites 2008.
The theme for this year is “Religious Heritage and Sacred Places” -
which is particularly appropriate for the Hill of Tara.
A number of high profile speakers will address the recent announcement
by Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, that a member of ICOMOS
has been retained in order to promote the nomination of the Hill of
Tara archaeological complex, to UNESCO World Heritage status, despite
the M3 motorway being built through it.
For more information see:
The International Day for Monuments and Sites was created on 18th
April, 1982, by ICOMOS and later approved at the 22nd UNESCO General
Conference in 1983. This special day offers an opportunity to raise
public awareness concerning the diversity of the world’s heritage and
the efforts that are required to protect and conserve it, as well as to
draw attention to its vulnerability.
For several years now, ICOMOS suggests a topic to be highlighted on
this occasion, among the multiple dimensions which make up the vast
subject that is the cultural heritage we care for. This has allowed our
members and our committees to hold activities, conferences, colloquia
or other events to raise awareness on this cultural heritage among the
public, the owners or the public authorities by linking a global theme
to local or national realities.
This year, to mark the 18th April, ICOMOS encourages its National
Committees, its International Scientific Committees and members to
organise activities with regards to the theme Religious heritage and
sacred places.
A universally present dimension, religious practices and beliefs have
led human societies to mark their spaces, build places, carry out works
or build up archives loaded with meaning and memories making it one of
the most important components of the heritage in today’s world. This
theme expresses itself in landscapes through place names, or rites and
pilgrimages linked to certain natural elements. In addition, in
creating this heritage, many past and current societies brought
together the sum of all their arts and sciences in the construction of
large or modest buildings and the objects they include.
Nowadays, the conservation of this heritage in its heritage dimension
can constitute a major challenge for a community. This raises the need
to share experiences; for example, that of the Quebec Religious
Heritage Foundation in Canada, an innovative model of
interdenominational dialogue, which carried out a vast programme (more
than 200 million US dollars in 10 years) to restore places of worship
and works of art and to adapt such buildings for shared uses, based on
ICOMOS principles. At a time when religion is increasingly being
recognized by the international community as being one of the major
issues for decades to come, the 18 April 2008 will be the occasion for
ICOMOS members and committees to take stock of the various dimensions
of knowledge, conservation and presentation of this vast heritage. It
also offers an opportunity to establish links with the authorities who
own or administer places of worship and to enlist their support for
ICOMOS and its principles.
In preparation for 18 April 2008, we thus invite you to devise
activities and joint events to identify examples of practices or
achievements worthy of sharing with your colleagues world-wide to
reinforce conservation action, our foremost mission. Such collaboration
could be for instance with the religious authorities responsible for
these heritage places or with a public or municipal administration, a
university, a school or with other associations to build bridges and
initiate dialogues which will help us to communicate ICOMOS’ concerns
to the users of, those responsible for or researchers working on
religious heritage and sacred places.
We thank you in advance for all your initiatives and ask you to inform
the ICOMOS Secretariat, as early as possible, of the activities you
plan to undertake for 18 April, but also to share their results with us
(programme, participation, declarations, and publications). This will
help us to disseminate information and to gather conclusions on all
your activities, so as to be able to testify of the vitality of ICOMOS’
network.
In the coming weeks and months, the ICOMOS International Secretariat
will be further developing these special web pages to provide you with
more ample information on this year’s theme. Please consult them
regularly!