The European Commission and Europa Nostra have just announced the 2022 winners of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards, funded by the EU Creative Europe programme. This year, which marks the 20th anniversary of Europe’s most prestigious Awards in the heritage field, 30 outstanding heritage achievements from 18 European countries have been awarded.
Among this year’s winners is the Heritage Opportunities/threats within Mega-Events in Europe (HOMEE), Cyprus, Italy, Poland, United Kingdom, in the category Research, in which the Neapolis University Pafos participated with Evanthia Dova, Angeliki Sivitanidou, Natia Anastasi and Julia Georgi of the School of Architecture, Engineering, Land and Environmental Sciences.
The Heritage Opportunities/threats within Mega-Events in Europe (HOMEE) project brought together leading research centres working in the fields of cultural heritage preservation and mega-event planning to investigate the ways in which cities use mega-events to support economic development. Funded by the European Joint Programming Initiative on Cultural Heritage, the project also involved key institutions and policy officers specialised in heritage policy and in the planning and implementation of mega-events in Europe.
The HOMEE project was jointly carried out by researchers from Politecnico di Milano (Italy), University of Hull (United Kingdom), Neapolis University Pafos (Cyprus) and the International Cultural Center (Poland). It involved 16 associate partners, including national and local institutions and non-profit organisations dealing with heritage and mega-events from across Europe, such as the Italian Ministry for Cultural Heritage and the Arts, UK Heritage Lottery Fund, National Heritage Board of Poland, Matera-Basilicata 2019 ECoC Foundation, City of Milan, District of Pafos, ENCATC and the University Network of the European Capitals of Culture (UNeECC).
The HOMEE project has built up significant new knowledge concerning the intersection of mega-event planning and cultural heritage. The main outputs of the project include: a state-of-the-art literature review regarding the nexus between cultural heritage and mega-events; a book titled “Mega-events and heritage: The experience of five European cities,” which documents the case studies of five past mega-events in heritage-rich cities (Genoa 2004 European Capital of Culture, Milan Expo 2015, Wrocław 2016 European Capital of Culture, Hull UK City of Culture 2017, Pafos 2017 European Capital of Culture); the reports “Urban heritage and mega-events: The case of Matera-Basilicata 2019 European Capital of Culture” and “Events through the Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence from Europe”; the special issue “Cultural Mega-events and Heritage: Challenges for European Cities” published by the European Planning Studies journal in March 2022; and the “Charter for Mega-Events in Heritage-rich Cities”, to help decision-makers and heritage actors face emerging challenges.
For more information, visit the official webpage of the HOMEE research project.
