CULTURAL LANDS

The eligible CB area is characterized by:

1. unique and diverse cultural heritage,
2. significant inland undeveloped potential (traditional villages, historical buildings etc) and
3. many common cultural elements that could form the basis for further tourist development.

The geographical areas of the proposed project, have a rich architectural and cultural heritage and are the lands where famous historical figures, were born and lived. Those figures, are strongly related with the cultural-historical legacy of the CB area as they directly contributed in shaping cultural identity at local,regional and national level.

However, the CB area is characterized from inadequate planning and management for mild types of tourism and lack:

1. of active management, so there is no special care to protect cultural assets which are threatened with degradation and
2. of a common action plan for tourist development (no area branding, no special tourist destinations).

CULTURAL LANDS is about how a joint route of promoting and preserving the CB cultural assets, can support non-homogeneous areas to flourish in the field of tourism development. Furthermore the project embodies the establishment of a cooperation network in the service of sustainable, local and regional development in the field of preservation and promotion of similar cultural assets as a prerequisite of cultural tourism development.

Furthermore, the CB cooperation is demonstrated through the development of a thematic CB cultural touristic path, in terms of a CB tourism brand development. The nodes of this path will be primarily the historical buildings of special architectural and cultural characteristics, strongly associated with historical figures, aiming to enhance the competitiveness of the CB area as a tourist destination. Thus, a cooperation network will be set up that can, with time & reasonable effort, expand and multiply its effect and results in the GR/AL CB area.

The main expected outputs of CULTURAL LANDS are the following:

• 4 Infrastructure projects concerning rehabilitation of buildings of special architectural and cultural characteristics-
  • Zitsa: “Kaplanios” Historical Housekeeping School Building at Local Community of Grammeno,
  • Metsovo: “Tsanaka” Historical Building and Former Cinema Building,
  • Gjirokaster/Libohove: “Avni Rustemi” House Museum,
• 1 Marketing Plan for CB Cultural Touristic Path (Branding),
• 1 CB Web GIS platform of cultural and tourist services (Trilingual),
• 2 Multimedia Applications/e-Libraries of CB Cultural Assets, ,
• 1 Thematic Database of the methodologies, technologies, tools related with cultural best safeguarding practices,
• Organization of 2 Joint Thematic Workshops (know-how and capacity building in the field of smart cultural preservation),
• Sustainability studies (X2) of the Project’s Results (Greece/Albania).

The project kick-off meeting took place on the 7th of December 2018. The agenda is attached.