"It is the civic duty of each and every one of us to help preserve our cultural heritage." Urban Heritage Care in the 19th and 20th Centuries and its Tradition

The international conference, organised by the Prague City Archives in cooperation with the Institute of History of the Faculty of Arts of J. E. Purkyně University in Ústí nad Labem, the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Prague City Museum and the National Heritage Institute, will take place from 8 to 9 October 2024 at the Residence of Mayor of the City of Prague (Mariánské nám. 1, Prague 1).

The protection of monuments and heritage care are undoubtedly major phenomena accompanying urban development in the 19th and 20th centuries, and the institutionalisation of these efforts is also a prominent modernisation trend, especially in the history of large cities. Therefore, the main thematic line of our conference are the following questions: what role the political representatives of cities and the municipal government played in the birth and functioning of monument care and in the protection of immovable and movable monuments in the urban space, what tasks they performed, what institutions and municipal facilities were involved in it, how the positive or negative clash/influence of interests of individuals or municipal or state institutions in the care of monuments in favour of their preservation or, on the contrary, their destruction was manifested. Also important is the level of collective or individual perception, i.e. how the city dwellers viewed, identified with or engaged in the preservation of monuments. We would like to seek answers or clarification of these questions not only for Prague and other Czech and Moravian cities, but we would also like to take into account the situation in other (Central)European metropolis.

Call for Papers EN     Call for Papers DE

If you are interested in participation, please send your registration (name of participant, affiliation to institution, e-mail address) and abstract to marketa.ruckova@praha.eu by 25 April 2024.

Conference languages: Czech and German, with simultaneous interpretation, or English