What went on during HerO Final Conference?

More than 80 participants from more than ten European countries took part in the event, among them political representatives of HerO's eight partner cities Graz, Naples, Sighisoara, Vilnius, Liverpool, Lublin, Poitiers and Valletta, representatives of the European Commission and the URBACT Programme, the Secretary General of 'Heritage Europe' (the network's cooperation partner during the three-year project period) as well as international heritage experts and professionals. The conference took place in one of Regensburg's most remarkable buildings, the historic Salt Barn, which is located close to the river Danube and the famous Stone Bridge.

The event aimed to present and discuss the results of three years of inspiring and successful project work - both on project level and on local level in the partner cities. Further, it aimed to promote the network's final publications, which are:

• A Download hero_guidebook_FINAL_01.pdf (6.45 MB) entitled 'The Road to Success – Integrated Management of Historic Towns', which provides assistance and guidance in a step-by-step approach for city administration and practitioners, who strive to elaborate a 'Cultural Heritage Integrated Management Plan' for their old town area. It summarises the key points relating to the reasons why a management plan should be elaborated and gives recommendations on the best way possible to prepare and implement such an instrument as clear steps that practitioners within European historic towns should aim to follow.
• A Download HerO_Policy_Recommendations.pdf (1.31 MB), which addresses politicians and decision-makers and which promotes the methodology developed by the HerO network. Since 2008 the HerO network focused on developing integrated and innovative management strategies for historic urban landscapes. Its objectives included facilitating the right balance between the preservation of the built cultural heritage and the sustainable, future-proof, socio-economic development of old town areas in order to strengthen their attractiveness and competitiveness. Emphasis was placed on managing conflicting usage interests and on capitalising the potential of cultural heritage assets for economic, social and cultural activities.

During the HerO Final Conference political representatives of all HerO partner cities signed the following declaration in a ceremony: "Herewith we declare our support of the HerO Policy Recommendations Paper published in April 2011. We commend the new HerO management approach to all Europe's Mayors of historic towns and encourage them to use cultural heritage as an opportunity and build on the lessons learned from the HerO project."

Read HerO's Download HerO_Newsletter_May_2011_01.pdf (3.61 MB): discover pictures from the event and learn more on the project results!

Read more:

• HerO - URBACT Website
• Download HerO_Newsletter_May_2011_01.pdf (3.61 MB) (May 2011) - PDF