The World Heritage Porticoes Office participated in the course coordinated by ICCROM/IUCN, entitled Heritage Management: People, Nature, Culture
This is one of the main educational offerings of the ICCROM-IUCN World Heritage Leadership Programme. This course provides heritage professionals, politicians, and representatives of communities and networks with the knowledge and tools they need to manage places effectively and to work with communities through existing management systems. It draws together the natural and cultural spheres to promote a more holistic approach to heritage conservation, demonstrating how effective management can give heritage sites a dynamic and mutually beneficial role in society, both in the present and in the future.
Participants were asked to apply the concepts learnt on the course to a specific case from the management of their own World Heritage property . In our case, we chose a virtuous experience created as part of the ‘Tre Istituzioni e Un Patrimonio – Porticando’ project, in which, during the last academic year, the Emilia-Romagna Region, as lead partner, worked together with the Academy of Fine Arts and the Municipality of Bologna – World Heritage Porticoes Office. The complex programme of restoration work, carried out by local schools under the supervision of teachers and students from the Academy, revealed the presence of a sacred image under the portico of Via Belle Arti, which had been damaged by graffiti that also covered the surrounding area.
What was interesting in this particular case is that the residents of the block of flats played an active role in working with the relevant authorities to improve a space that they clearly perceived as theirs (in fact, as is widely recognised, porticoes are private spaces for public use), and were also encouraged to contribute to the upkeep of a property that is part of the collective heritage.
It is noteworthy that following the restoration of the sacred image and the cleaning of the property, its overall condition remained generally good, thereby providing tangible evidence to support the ‘broken windows’ theory.
The course committee was impressed by the example we gave of the synergy between institutions and citizens that this operation had created, and asked us to disseminate this example more widely.
PANORAMA stands out among the multitude of properties embodying UNESCO’s and its institutional partners’ missions, such as ICOMOS, ICCROM and IUCN. The site is a global portal, a network that brings together many partners involved in land management as well as marine and coastal nature and culture issues. The portal is designed to serve as a platform for cross-disciplinary learning and sharing. It is in this context that our image – Bologna’s restored porticoes and the project that has exalted them, hopefully as an example of best practice for all – was forged.
https://panorama.solutions/en/solution/la-restauration-de-la-madone-de-belle-arti-aux-portiques-de-bologne
