ARCHEOMEDSITES

ARCHEOMEDSITES project is co-financed by the European Union through the ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme 2007-2013 for a total amount of approximately € 2 million and includes activities to be implemented until 31st December 2015.

The Lead Partner is the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities and for Tourism – which leads an aggregation of partners, composed, for the part of the South shore of the Mediterranean from Tunisia (Institut National du Patrimoine) and Lebanon (Ministry of Culture). The Italian component has been established taking into account the complexity of the procedures to be implemented both by the National institution and by local authorities. In particular, it includes two archaeological Superintendency of the Ministry (Campania and of Sardinia), the municipalities of Carbonia, Florence and Siena. Finally, the scientific component is also guaranteed by the University of Sassari, Federculture and the NGO Ricerca e Cooperazione. The composition of the qualified partnership, as well as significant impacts that are expected to follow, however, have been decisive factors that have enabled the project to pass the initial evaluation phase of nominations submitted to the Managing Authority of the program that have been over a thousand.

The strategy of the project is based on an institutional architecture which involves also a qualified aggregation of partners, defined Associated: organizations and institutions not beneficiaries of the initiatives, but active subjects who will put their skills and knowledge in support of project partners and target groups:

• Centro universitario europeo per i beni culturali (CUEBC) located at Villa Rufolo in Ravello, where every year it organizes, with Federculture, “Ravello Lab”.
• Istituto Superiore sui sistemi territoriali per l’innovazione (SiTI), a non-profit organization founded in 2002 by a collaboration between the Politecnico di Torino and the Compagnia di San Paolo.
• Ente Parco Nazionale del Cilento, Vallo di Diano e Alburni, in whose territory the archaeological sites of Paestum and Velia insist.
• International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), an intergovernmental organization dedicated to the preservation of cultural heritage.
• ITALIA NOSTRA onlus – Associazione Nazionale per la tutela del patrimonio storico, artistico e naturale della Nazione, more than 50 years active in the field of raising awareness about the issues related to the protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage.
• Comando Carabinieri per la tutela del patrimonio culturale, works directly under the Minister for cultural heritage and activities and for tourism, particularly active in operations aimed at the recovery of works of art unlawfully removed.
• Università di Cagliari – Dipartimento di ingegneria civile, ambientale e architettura, which will be involved in exchange activities of advanced research and conservation of urban spaces, as well as raising awareness of young people and students.

The objectives of the project

The main goal of the project is to create a network of institutions in the Mediterranean area for the protection and enhancement of archaeological sites and urban areas, to standardize good practice, to disseminate knowledge, to promote exchanges between industry professionals and, then, to involve other European countries and those of the Mediterranean Basin.

In particular, the activities on which, until December 2015, the project will develop, aim to lay the groundwork for establishing and developing a process leading to the adoption of management plans of archaeological target sites and guidelines to ensure the preservation, maintenance and enhancement of the same areas and the surrounding urban areas, including the use of shared initiatives to exchange and training of operators.

The target sites, that will be the subject of specific initiatives to be undertaken, are: Cagliari and Carbonia – Monte Sirai in Sardinia, Paestum and Velia in Campania, Carthage and Kerkouane in Tunisia, Tyre Al-Bass Site and Tyre City Site  in Lebanon. To ensure the most effective way for the management, protection and enhancement of the target sites, also in view of a better use of them, activities will carry out that will affect different actors, institutional or otherwise, involved in various ways, namely: local institutions; civil society; scientific community; young people and students and, ultimately, the entire population of the Mediterranean area.

The omen is to contribute to the socioeconomic development of the area of the Mediterranean basin, including strengthening institutional cooperation in the cultural field between the two shores, with a view to exchanging and sharing of objectives and strategies.

Programme website enpicbcmed.eu

Fact sheet ArcheoMedSites enpicbcmed.eu/sites/default/files/archeomedsites.pdf

“The 2007-2013 ENPI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme is a multilateral Cross-Border Cooperation initiative funded by the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI). The Programme objective is to promote the sustainable and harmonious cooperation process at the Mediterranean Basin level by dealing with the common challenges and enhancing its endogenous potential. It finances cooperation projects as a contribution to the economic, social, environmental and cultural development of the Mediterranean region. The following 14 countries participate in the Programme: Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Palestine, Portugal, Spain, Syria (participation currently suspended), Tunisia. The Joint Managing Authority (JMA) is the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (Italy). Official Programme languages are Arabic, English and French (www.enpicbcmed.eu)”.