Visit-Montenegro.com: Preservation of Cultural Heritage

Prijepolje (SEEcult.org): On 11 September in Prijepolje, within the central celebration “The European Heritage Days” in Serbia, the officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia will sign the Communication of Prijepolje on the common will to protect and improve cultural diversity on the territory of these three countries as well as to enhance intercultural and inter religious dialogue.

Nebojša Bradić, the Minister of Culture in Serbia, who will sign the Communication of Prijepolje with Sredoje Nović, the Minister of Civil Affairs of BIH and Branislav Mićunović, the Minister of Culture, Sports and Media, said at the press conference held on 7 September in Belgrade that this document would be signed as a confirmation that the cultural heritage from these territories represented common European heritage and the common priority. Besides common care for cultural heritage in the region, signing of the Communication of Prijepolje will be the basis for common cooperation on certain projects. One of those is the nomination of standing tomb-stone as a part of European cultural heritage.

Bradic says that one of the priorities of the cultural policy of Serbia is to improve the cultural connections and cooperation with neighboring countries in the region, but with Europe ant the entire world as well.

On the initiative and with the support of the Serbian Ministry of Culture, the event “The European Heritage Days” in Prijepolje has gone beyond the national framework, and for the first time in Serbia, under the roof of one museum, it has involved representative programmes of three large and significant museums from the neighboring countries – the Earth Museum of BIH, Museum of Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka and the National Museum of Montenegro. Serbia was presented with the exhibition from the collection of museums in Prijepolje.

The central programme of this event includes the opening of exhibitions “Archeological finds from ancient necropolis in Kolovrat” from the collection of museums in Prijepolje, “Rugs from Bosnia and Herzegovina from the collection of the Earth Museum of BIH”, “Contemporary Montenegrin Painting from Figuration to Symbol” from the collection of the National Museum of Montenegro from Cetinje and “Jewelry throughout centuries” from the collection of Museums from Republic of Srpska in Banja Luka.

Exhibition “Culture matters – UNESCO sites in South-Eastern Europe” has been announced. Klemens Koja, the Austrian ambassador in Serbia will open it.

“The European Heritage Days” is a joint programme of the Council of Europe and the European Commission aimed at making cultural heritage more approachable to the public in all European states and at highlighting unity of diversity of common European heritage, as one of specific factors of European identity. The project “Open Days of Cultural Monuments” which took place in France for the first time in 1984 gave ground for the organization of this event. The aim of that project in France was to show the cultural monuments to a wider public, which they did not have chance to see during a year. The Council of Europe took over the basis of the concept of that project extending it to the idea of raising the awareness of European citizens to the richness and cultural diversity of Europe and common heritage as a vehicle for mutual discovery and understanding; strengthening the feeling among Europeans of sharing the same identity; creating a climate in which the appreciation of the rich mosaic of European cultures is stimulated.