The winners of the 7 Most Endangered programme 2021 run by the leading heritage organisation Europa Nostra and the EIB Institute and supported by Creative Europe have been announced on 8 April 2021 during a live event with European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Mariya Gabriel.
They are: Achensee Steam Cog Railway, Tyrol, (Austria), Cemetery Complex of Mirogoj, Zagreb, (Croatia), Five Southern Aegean Islands (Greece), The Giusti Garden, Verona (Italy), Dečani Monastery (Kosovo), * Central Post Office in Skopje (North Macedonia) and San Juan de Socueva Chapel and Hermitage, Cantabria, (Spain).
For the 2021 edition, for the first time since the launch of the programme, the selected 7 Most Endangered heritage sites will be eligible for an EIB Heritage Grant of up to €10,000 per site. The EIB Heritage Grant can be allocated to the eligible selected 7 Most Endangered sites to assist in implementing an agreed activity that will contribute to saving the threatened site.
Mariya Gabriel underlined “the catalytic role of the 7ME in raising awareness about European cultural heritage in danger and the excellent partnership with the EIB Institute”. Since the launch of the programme in 2013, 43 sites in 26 countries representing “much more than merely bricks and stones but the memory and soul of Europe” have been selected and a number has been saved such as the Mafra carillons in Portugal or the Bourla Theater 19th century machinery in Antwerp (Belgium) said Guy Clausse, Europa Nostra’s Executive Vice-President. Francisco de Paula Coelho, Dean of the EIB Institute, praised the “innovative cooperation mixing the cultural expertise and lobbying work of Europa Nostra -who selects the sites to safeguard- with the technical appraisal and rescue planning skills of the EIB”.
The EIB Institute facilitates the transfer of know-how and experience between different partners and countries in the heritage conservation field.
* This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.
