Download the European Declaration for an integrated revitalisation of Historic Towns, which was adopted with the conviction of 100 representatives during the final conference of Hist.Urban.

»Integrated revitalisation of historical towns to promote a sustainable urban development«

Central and East Europe is shaped by a plurality of small and medium sized city personalities, whose historical centers belong to the unique heritage of European built-culture. The rapid social and economical transformation process of the last two decades poses a major challenge to these historical cities: They have to present attractive and competitive cities, capable to function as an engine for the regional development, and preserving and developing the unique built-cultural heritage at the same time.

The sustainable development of these historical towns is of high importance for the European cultural identity and a healthy polycentric development in the European Union.

Aim 

In the INTERREG IIIB CADSES project Hist.Urban 19 project partners from 9 Central and East European countries have come together to support the development of attractive and competitive small and medium sized historical towns, using the potential of the built-cultural heritage as a development factor for an integrated, sustainable urban development.

Actions

The project partners develop and implement revitalisation approaches for historical towns, combining the urban development with the promotion of the built-cultural heritage.

During the conferences and "Summer Academies" of Hist.Urban they exchange experiences, transfer know-how and network together, assisting the project partners in their future revitalisation attempts.
The results of Hist.Urban will be summarised in a transnational manual on integrated and implementation-orientated revitalisation approaches. It will demonstrate special (state of the art) revitalisation strategies and instruments and gives advice on their implementation (guidelines).

Hist.Urban officially kicked off in June 2006 with the conference in Plzen, Czech Republic, and will present its final results during the conference in Verona, Italy, in May 2008.

Future perspective

Hist.Urban intends to include existing regional/ national networks, dealing with the revitalisation of historical towns, with the vision to establish a transnational European network which will carry on - beyond the official end of Hist.Urban in 2008 - the promotion of the revitalisation of historical towns and their unique European built-cultural heritage.