Prague - This year's European Heritage Days in the Czech Republic focus on small architecture, monuments in villages or landscapes, forest cross paths, chapels, as well as entire landscape units in which they are situated. The national theme of this year's days is Monuments in the Landscape and the Landscape as a Monument. A thousand monuments will be open to visitors, and people can also take a look at sites that are otherwise inaccessible. The celebrations of cultural heritage have been held since 1991 under the auspices of the Council of Europe in various European countries. The national opening takes place each year in a different city. This year, it will be held on Saturday in České Budějovice, and an exhibition titled Carriers of the Tradition of Folk Crafts will begin in the city today. This title is awarded by the Minister of Culture on the occasion of the European Heritage Days to several individuals who apply traditional methods or materials in their crafts and are often the only ones in the country. So far, 37 individuals have been awarded, and on Saturday five more will be added. The main organizer of the European Heritage Days in the country is the Association of Historical Settlements of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia. Since the first year, which saw 300 monuments participating and attracted 50,000 visitors, attendance and the number of participating monuments have grown. In the last ten years, attendance has exceeded half a million people. Information about all accessible monuments is available on the website www.ehd.cz. The goal of the European Heritage Days is to draw attention to and highlight the preservation and utilization of the cultural legacy of the past. People can also learn more about current issues in state monument care or how private owners care for monuments. Some of them also make their sites accessible as part of this event. This year’s national theme, Monuments in the Landscape and the Landscape as a Monument, opens up opportunities for new perspectives on the mutual relationship between culture and nature - it allows us to realize the long-standing interconnection between architecture and landscape. Participants in the European Heritage Days can discover how, due to human influence, cultural landscapes were created in past centuries, and that many elements in the landscape now perceived as "natural" are actually human creations.
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