Network activities

Karlovac (HR): Agreement to EU project application „Monuments-4-CCI“

ECCOFORT acts as lead applicant for a new project application for the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE programme. “Monuments-4-CCI” is the project title under which 11 partners and 8 associated partner from 8 Central European countries work together in the future, among them network members like the city Ulm and Kostrzyn nad Odra. The fortified ideal city Karlovac in Croatia is lead partner. Agreement meetings for the project application took place in December.

Berlin (DE): Workshop for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage(ECHY – European Cultural Heritage Year), which is coordinated in Germany via the office of the German Committee for Monument Protection. “Sharing Heritage” is the slogan and the name of the connected web platform.

ECCOFORT representatively collected information about the possibilities of participation in the European Year of Cultural Heritage. Especially the high international attention is a good chance for placing the cultural heritage fortified monuments and the culture route FORTE CULTURA. Events and actions with transnational effects can be submitted and ECCOFORT operates coordinating for our network and beyond.

Bolzano (IT): Conference „The medieval ways of the Empire“

Dirk Röder presents the European culture route fortified monuments FORTE CULTURA, as an exemplary instrument of valuing the historic cultural heritage. The conference was sponsored by the European region Euregio Tirol-Südtirol-Trentino in order to initiate a regional cultural way “The medieval way of the Empire”.

Berlin (DE): EFFORTS founding conference

International representatives of fortified monuments and groups of interest met the citadel Spandau to found the network “EFFORTS – European Federation of Fortified Sites”. The initiative goes back to the former EU project ATFORT in the Western European sponsor area. ECCOFORT participated proactively in the EFFORTS founding conference and declared its membership during the founding ceremony.

Both networks, the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network and EFFORTS, follow similar goals to strengthen the meaningful cultural heritage fortified monuments. A close cooperation is therefore natural.

Berlin (DE): Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme, conference for the 20th anniversary

The two days anniversary conference was also the start of the third call for project applications in the ongoing sponsoring period until 2020 and the start of a row of information workshops for applicants. ECCOFORT took part as the representative of FORTS-2-MARKET in Berlin and in another workshop in the beginning of November in Prague, also to prepare the project application.

Königstein (DE): Fortress Königstein (Saxony) joins network

The fortress Königstein belongs to the most outstanding fortified monuments of Europe. For a bigger presence on the market and in order to deepen the cooperation with European fortified monuments, especially along the Elbe, the fortress Königstein joins the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network e.V. and become part of the European Culture Route Fortified Monuments “FORTE CULUTRA”.

This way the fortress Königstein will be leadingly support the development of a sub brand “Elbe fortifications” which includes, among others, important fortifications like Dömitz, Terezin or Josefov.

Novi Sad (RS): Seminar Restauration, maintenance and marketing of fortresses - a national task as part of the European development

Experts from Serbia, Germany, Croatia, Switzerland and Turkey met on fortress Petrovaradin to discuss transnational cooperation on maintenance and marketing of fortresses in the Danube area.

FORTE CULTURA and the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network were presented in detail in three lectures and one image movie.

The 50 participants, among them representatives of ICOMOS, ICOFORT and Europa Nostra, discusses possible ways to value the cultural heritage fortified monuments sustainably in the Danube area.

FORTE CULTURA® study tour Serbia successfully finished

Fortification experts from Germany and Switzerland visited fortified monuments in Serbia and Croatia on a one-week tour lead by Dr. Hans-Rudolf Neumann.

Ulm (DE): City Ulm/ Neu-Ulm becomes network member, start at the German Donau

On occasion of the 8th fortress day the culture mayor Iris Mann signed the admittance certificate for the city Ulm/Neu-Ulm to our fortress network on the citadel Wilhelmsburg.

After the major fortification Mainz, Ulm is the second fortress of the German Bund, that wants to generate new impulses for fortress tourism and fortress marketing with international cooperation. The Ulm/Neu-Ulm Touristik GmbH will be responsible for the organization of the cooperation.

Koblenz (DE): City Koblenz strengthens the FORTE CULTURA cluster „Fortified Heritage Rhine-Main-Mosel“ as new member

On 1st of June 2017 Bert Flöck, buildings department Koblenz, officially announces the entry to the network and signed the admission declaration. The city will be represented in the network by the municipal enterprise Grünflächen- und Bestattungswesen.

Besides the fortress Ehrenbreitstein (GDKE), now the other fortified monuments of the city will be included into the culture route FORTE CULTURA and into the fortress marketing under the uniform brand “major fortification Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein”. The joint development of travel recommendations for the culture route has already begun. This focusses on culture and active touristic offers.

L'Association des Amis de la Ligne Maginot d'Alsace (The Association of friends of the Maginot Line in Alsace) becomes first French network member.

The association “Friends of the Maginot Line in Alsace” belongs to the active organizations that preserve and care for the fortified heritage of the 20th Century. Today they have the important function to work off the history and to clarify and inform about the consequences of war and destruction.

The association manages among others the Fort Schoenenbourg and the entrenchment Etsch, which belong the fortifications of the Maginot Line. With the entry into the network it connects a larger range via the culture route FORTE CULTURA and the networking with other locations about memory culture of the 20th Century.

Germersheim (DE): Fortress meeting „new chances for fortress tourism, fortress marketing and fortress cooperation in the region Oberrhein“

As part of the fortress meeting the fortified city Germersheim officially declared its membership of the European Fortress Tourism and Fortress Marketing Network e.V.. This way the city Germersheim wants to further qualify their touristic offers and reach an international market. At the same time they are eagerly interested in expanding the cooperation with other fortified cities and fortified monuments in the Franco-German border area of the region Oberrhein, to develop touristic offers together and to present them with FORTE CULTURA on the tourism market.