The Council of Europe and Historical Preservation
The Council of Europe and Historical Preservation

Summary/Abstract: The main focus of my PhD training is the preservation of cultural heritage. Within this topic I pay attention to four main fields: historical preservation in Hungary, in the European Union, the World Heritage and the role of the Council of Europe. In my first year as a postgraduate student I was able to analyze the history and the development of this protection in Hungary. After studying the history of Hungarian national historic monuments, buildings and current legislation I came to the conclusion that the aforementioned fields were established long after they had been in Western-European countries. That is why I have decided to look for inspirations and samples for comparison from the European Union. Besides the EU the Council of Europe also plays an important role in this field, there exist several conventions concerning the protection of cultural heritage. In this article I would like to examine two conventions, namely the Granada Convention for the Protection of the Architectural Heritage of Europe and the Valetta Convention for the Protection of the Archaeological Heritage of Europe. The main purpose of the Granada Convention is to reinforce and promote policies for the conservation and enhancement of Europe's heritage. It also affirms the need for European solidarity with regard to heritage conservation and is designed to foster practical co-operation among the Parties. It establishes the principles of "European co-ordination of conservation policies" including consultations regarding the thrust of the policies to be implemented. The revised Valetta Convention updates the provisions of a previous Convention adopted by the Council of Europe in 1969. The new text makes the conservation and enhancement of the archaeological heritage one of the goals of urban and regional planning policies. It is concerned in particular with arrangements to be made for co-operation among archaeologists and town and regional planners in order to ensure optimum conservation of archaeological heritage. The Convention sets guidelines for the funding of excavation and research work and publication of research findings. It also deals with public access, in particular to archaeological sites, and educational actions to be undertaken to develop public awareness of the value of the archaeological heritage. Finally, the Convention constitutes an institutional framework for pan-European co-operation on the archaeological heritage, entailing a systematic exchange of experience and experts among the various States. The Committee responsible for monitoring the application of the Convention assumes the role of strengthening and co-ordinating archaeological heritage policies in Europe.

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