Under the aegis of the Education, Science and Culture Committee of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania

The Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture in collaboration

with the State Commission for Cultural Heritage is organizing the international conference

“Wooden Architectural Heritage and National Cultural Policy”

26–27 May 2010

Vilnius

Conference Hall, 3rd Seimas building

Implementing the 2008–2010 Plan of Measures to Protect the Wooden Architectural Heritage signed by the Minister of Culture, the Department of Cultural Heritage is organizing the international conference “Wooden Architectural Heritage and National Cultural Policy” on 26–27 May 2010.

Ethnographic villages and individual ethnographic farmsteads, estates and town buildings, sacral architecture, mills and constructions for other purposes, as well as objects of small architecture (crosses, pillar shrines, wayside shrines, and monuments) are part of the wooden architectural heritage. Preliminary estimates put the figure of buildings of the country’s wooden heritage at 2,863. There are 1,519 individual and wooden buildings in complexes, 700 ethnographic constructions in villages and 644 buildings of small architecture. The Register of Valuable Cultural Objects includes about 16,000 immovable objects (end of 2008 data), which means that every tenth object should be attributed to the heritage of wooden architecture.

However, this group of the heritage is disappearing. Currently the wooden estate buildings are in poor repair (about 38 percent of the buildings are in very poor repair), as are ethnographic buildings (about 34 percent in very poor repair) and other wooden objects used for different purposes (about 33 percent are in very poor repair). The disappearance of valuable features or elements which should be protected is mainly caused by several reasons: they are not adapted to serve other purposes, have fallen into disuse and are neglected.

During the economic downturn, it is necessary to search for ways and possibilities of saving the wooden architectural heritage. Many European countries have realized that investment in the heritage is a long-term and successful way of solving the issue. Investment in renovation or adaptation of historical buildings and sites creates more jobs and economic activities than building new constructions. Traditional building materials and the work of local artisans is used to preserve the authentic cultural heritage. At the same time, investments stay in the country and do not bring profit to foreign companies, which supply modern but environmentally unfriendly materials. Undoubtedly, investment in the heritage has direct impact on the development of cultural tourism, which brings long-term social and economic benefit, as well as forms the country’s image. There is ample proof that the use of authentic materials and building techniques protect the environment. Moreover, it is known that the heritage is an important element of social harmony, the community, and integration: it promotes the feeling of identification with the locality and social harmony.

The objective of the conference is to review the state of the protection of the wooden heritage and form guidelines for further actions, which must be taken in order to preserve the unique but quickly disappearing heritage. With the changing of the models and priorities for state funding, pressure by the market of non-traditional materials, and disappearance of traditional crafts there is a real threat to the wooden heritage and by the same token to our national identity. In order to protect the heritage effectively it is necessary to work out immediate solutions now. During the conference, it is expected to discuss an action plan, to foresee opportunities and to improve the current funding of the heritage in the hope that in 2014–2020 the financial instruments of the European Union can at least partially change the situation.

It should be noted that in order to protect the cultural heritage of wooden architecture and to hand it down to the future generations, its protection must not only be an issue of major concern to specialists of cultural heritage, but also of close collaboration between the ministries, departments and the public.