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CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE
South-Eastern Europe (SEE) has rightly been called a crossroads of cultures and civilizations, where i.a. Illyrians, ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium, Venice, the Ottoman and the Habsburg Empires have marked their influence by tangible and intangible cultural heritage, and where Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, and Orthodoxy have co-existed over centuries. Their multiple influences, enriched in the interaction with local populations and cultures, account for a particularly extensive and varied heritage that includes architectural monuments, archaeological finds, sacred sites, historic cities, sculptures, frescoes, narrative songs, epics, music, theatre, dance, precious manuscripts and documents, artefacts, oral traditions, languages, handicrafts and culinary traditions.
Considering only the beneficiary countries of the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe, the region hosts 34 sites inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage in reason of their exceptional cultural and/or natural interest, and 3 masterpieces inscribed in the UNESCO Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity.
This invaluable heritage demands to be preserved and transmitted to future generations. At the same time, it deserves to be better promoted at the international level, so as to contribute to building up a new, positive image of the region, based on the cultural values it harbours.
Links:
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage
Ministries of Culture of SEE Countries:
Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
Moldova
Montenegro
Romania
Serbia