Dragomirna Church, Romania - 2014 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage Grand Prix WINNER !!!

The winners of the 2014 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage have been presented with their awards for excellence in conservation and heritage-related work.

From among 160 entries, panels of experts picked 6 projects as Grand Prix winners:

• the restoration of 17th century frescoes covering 900 square metres of wall at Dragomirna Church, Romania. This project also won the Public Choice Award after an online poll involving 10 000 voters.
• a project to restore the vernacular architecture of the late-16th to mid-19th century Walser Houses in Alagna Valsesia, Italy
• the conservation of 8 wine-making cooperatives in Catalonia, Spain, built in the early 20th century in the Modernist style and still in use today
• research into Roman building methods in the Peloponnese, Greece
• Kempen Landscape heritage association, which has devised a unique way of conserving and managing 800 hectares of a historic landscape in Belgium
• a project to raise awareness of the cultural heritage of Miskolc, Hungary, a city with a rich history that has fallen into decline since the 1980s

Each of the winners received a trophy at the Vienna ceremony on 5 May, presented by opera tenor Plácido Domingo, president of Europa Nostra. The Grand Prix winners were also awarded €10 000 each.

“From war to peace: a European tale” - speech Nobel Peace Price

The EU received on 10 December 2012 the 

Nobel Peace Prize!!!

The speech was addressed by Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council & José Manuel Durão Barroso, President of the European Commission.

The speeches can be found in Rapid.

Read it in peace ;)

EU Prize for Literature 2012 - celebration of Europe's best emerging authors

The aim of the European Prize for Literature is to put the spotlight on the creativity and diverse wealth of Europe’s contemporary literature in the field of fiction, to promote the circulation of literature within Europe and encourage greater interest in non-national literary works.

The works of the selected winners (one per country participating in the prize on a rotation basis) will reach a wider and international audience, and touch readers beyond national and linguistic borders.

The prize (5.000 Euro for each winner) is financed by the Culture Programme of the European Union whose objective is to achieve three main goals: to promote cross-border mobility of those working in the cultural sector; to encourage the transnational circulation of cultural and artistic output; and to foster intercultural dialogue.

The competition is opened to all 37 countries involved in the EU Culture Programme run by EC - DG EAC. This year the selected countries are: Austria , Croatia , France , Hungary , Ireland , Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Poland , Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden. So, 12 winners, Romania is not on the winners' list. Maybe next year...

The prizes were awarded in November 2012 in Brussels.