Best Practices Awards 2023
Łódź (Poland), 22 September 2023
The 2023 Best Practices Awards were presented during the closing ceremony of the 12th Annual Advisory Forum on Cultural Routes in Łódź (Poland). Ms. Urszula ŚLĄZAK, Chair of the EPA Governing Board, and Mrs. Meltem ÖNHON, Vice-Chair of the EPA Governing Board, awarded the certificates on behalf of the Governing Board to the representatives of the certified Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.
Four Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe received the 2023 Award for their “Best Practices”:
Awarded Best Practice: Enhancing memory, history, and European heritage
On 30 June 2023, at the Galleria d’ Italia in Piazza San Carlo, Turin, representatives of the Historic Cafés Route held the conference “Historic Cafés Route – tangible and intangible heritage”. The conference aimed to highlight the importance of Historic Cafés for our shared European history and memory, and ways in which certified Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe can cooperate to promote memory, history, European heritage and cultural tourism in specific areas through cultural tourism products.
Awarded Best Practice Cultural and educational exchanges for young Europeans
The European Industrial Heritage Summer School took place from 5 to 20 August 2023 in Berlin, Germany. This 14-day program focused on industrial heritage and sustainability. The first week was dedicated to theoretical discussions on industrial heritage, while the second week involved practical workshops exploring how industrial heritage sites can serve as models for sustainability.
Awarded Best Practice: Contemporary cultural and artistic practices
In 2022-2023, the European Route of Ceramics launched a pilot project within the WalkEur initiative, co-financed by Creative Europe. This experimental platform offered digital access to the cultural heritage associated with ceramics and mapped the expertise of the sector. Through creating digital access, the experimental platform was designed to map the 'know-how' of the ceramic sector, involving all the members of the European Route of Ceramics and thus offering a digital journey along the Cultural Route in the form of an interactive journey.
Awarded Best Practice: Cultural tourism and sustainable cultural development
Lugana has been the first wine tourism destination in Italy to host an Iter Vitis walking path. Iter Vitis decided to build this pilot project for a future network of European vine paths aimed to celebrate landscapes, characteristic places, archaeological and historical sites and winegrowing. The Lugana path was tested by a first group of journalists, wine tourists and influencers from 24-26 May 2023, to select the items that will be integrated into the walking path and to evaluate the difficulties of the route.