European Heritage Days in Kosovo (2006, 2007 & 2008)

The practice of organizing the European Heritage Days in Kosovo began in 2003 as a pilot-project in Isniq village of Deçan/Decani, continuing the same way in 2004 in village Dranoc of Deçan/Decani, and in 2005 in both these villages concurrently. Implementing organization of these activities was the Swedish foundation Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB). In 2006, 2007 and 2008, EHD have acquired a wider extent by including in its programme locations from all parts of Kosovo. Under the patronage of the Council of Europe and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and in partnership with CHwB, NGO “Emancipimi Civil – EC Ma Ndryshe” bore the role of EHDs implementer in the cultural capital city of Kosovo, Prizren. [more]

During the EHD's, many local and international participants had the chance of visiting, in a concerted manner, some of the old distinctive houses of the city of Prizren, to discuss the cultural heritage of this city, to debate about the need to introduce this specific subject in school curricula, and to get acquainted with the CHwB’s conservation plans for Nënkalaja quarter and other quarters of the city by the Polytechnic University of Istanbul/Turkey. In 1991, the Council of Europe, with the support of the European Union, officially instituted the “European Heritage Days” (EHD) with the basic idea on promoting access to monuments and cultural heritage sites, which usually are not open to the public, while representing the common European cultural heritage values.