HRH The Prince of Wales meets heritage experts in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic
We were delighted to be asked by HRH The Prince of Wales’s Office in London to participate in the State Visit to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in March 2010. Heritage was a key component of each leg of the visit, the occasion of which proved an excellent opportunity to bring together local experts with British colleagues to discuss shared challenges and possible future collaboration.
In Hungary, Catherine Leonard represented INTO at a round table discussion with representatives of the Hungarian cultural heritage sector at Ráday Castle, Pécel (near Budapest), managed by the Hungarian National Trust. Visiting the castle provided an opportunity to discuss the issues the organisation faces in managing its properties, to understand how the Hungarian public views and values its heritage and to see how assets like Raday Castle are affected by the difficult economic and funding climate.
HRH The Prince of Wales was delighted to hear that the Hungarian National Trust was joining INTO and spoke passionately about the need for citizen initiatives to involve communities in heritage conservation and to develop a sense of belonging.
Catherine explained the UK National Trust’s ‘Going Local’ campaign and those present were struck by the idea of protecting our heritage ‘for the everlasting delight of the people’. She welcomed the Hungarian National Trust to the INTO family and explained that the National Trust model was replicated in different ways in different countries.
Follow up activities are likely to include a staff exchange programme based on National Trust case studies, participation in The Prince of Wales’s Institute of Architecture courses, guest lecturing in Hungary and property management training.
We here at INTO are particularly looking forward to working with the Hungarian National Trust in the future and have a lot to learn from their ability to achieve such a lot with limited resources (their ‘alchemy’) and how cultural heritage is ingrained in indentity.
In Prague, INTO was asked to set the agenda for the meeting with HRH The Prince of Wales, which was an enormous priveledge and we invited a number of exisiting and dormant contacts to the table. Our aim was to strengthen relationships between heritage conservation organisations by developing, inter alia, an innovative new joint education programme and finalising plans for the first staff exchanges and voluntary working holidays with a view to building citizen support and ultimately to exploring the feasibility of establishing a Czech National Trust.
HRH The Prince of Wales understood perfectly the need for sympathetic philanthropists to support restoration projects or scholarships and the importance of reconnecting people with their local heritage and values.
On heritage skills training, HRH suggested a visit to Dumfries House for the Czech, Polish and Hungarian experts he had met on the visit to see the scheme in action and suggested that greater use could be made of the internet for ‘virtual’ training.
Oliver Maurice said that it was a tremendous honour to have the presence of His Royal Highness at the meeting and a great shot in the arm for heritage conservation in the Czech Republic and for INTO. HRH explained his interest in the work of INTO and Oliver said he hoped that maybe his role might be formalised in some way. HRH responded by saying, ‘Let’s see!’.
Read Oliver’s full report here.