INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE IN EUROPE
March 2020

EFAITH, the European Federation of Association of Industrial and Technical Heritage is an open European community of voluntary organisations and volunteers, dedicated to cooperation in the field of industrial and technical heritage. EFAITH defends not only the safeguarding of Europe's industrial and technical heritage, but above all the indispensable role of volunteers and associations in it. These are often at the forefront, bringing new ideas and drawing attention to sites that are not yet considered valuable. They save objects and archives. Without their efforts much valuable heritage would be lost.

EFAITH wants to strengthen contacts between volunteers and associations in the different European countries, and ensure the exchange of ideas and experiences between its members - through meetings and e-newsletters. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic we unfortunately had to cancel all meetings until June, but we are now working on a system of video conferences, which our members will soon be able to join.

EFAITH is an organization whose operation and activities rely entirely on a number of motivated unpaid volunteers, and thanks to the contributions of its members.
Not yet a member ?

READ MORE

---

ADHESION

Thanks to support from the European Commission, within the framework of the COSME program (project 'Genius Loci') EFAITH was able to design a unique label for industrial sites and buildings, INDUSTRIANA. This contains a QR code, with which passers-by can use their smartphone to request five pages of information, pictures and videos about the site. Each of these pages can be created in all European languages, although English is the basis of the system.

The network is now already present in 12 European countries, and recently two new sites from the Netherlands were included.

• 
  Bosch Brewery is the last remaining, fully equipped city brewery in Maastricht. The brewery’s complex is particularly unique to the Netherlands.  It is said to be the oldest remaining brewery inn The Netherlands, with intact floor malting plant, a brewery itself and the brewer's house!
• 
  The Thole Crane in Helmond (1928) is a unique combination of a revolving and travelling grab crane on an elevated track.

Your site or collection can also join

The HECTOR project aims to improve the employability of young Europeans (18-30 years) with a qualification in the tourism sector by providing them with core competences and specialisation in adventure tourism for industrial heritage.

Industrial heritage offers interesting case studies and is relevant from a cultural point of view as it reflects the socio-economic and socio-cultural development of communities. The valorisation of industrial heritage offers an opportunity for sustainable development. These characteristics make industrial heritage a valuable asset to be developed from a tourism perspective into an experience package that creates links with people and places and promotes accessible and sustainable tourism.

To this end, the HECTOR curriculum is being developed: it aims to provide skills, competences and knowledge to people already trained, in line with market trends, by proposing a course and a job-related experience that focuses on industrial heritage.

Nine institutions from Italy, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Spain, Austria, Germany and EFAITH will therefore work together to train young tourism professionals in this specific field of tourism and the valorisation of industrial heritage. The program will take 36 months.
A first meeting took place in Ljubljana (Slovenia), but a second meeting due to be held in April in Sayn (Germany) had to be cancelled because of the Corona virus

The qualification will be done by an online course and a summer school. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the participants will be supported in the creation of an „Industrial Heritage Experience Toolbox“, i.e. an offer that enables tourists to connect with people and places whose history, habits and traditions are marked by local industrial development. From a training perspective, this is an innovative approach that defines a new profile, with a strong focus on sustainable and accessible tourism and transversal skills such as problem solving, entrepreneurship and communication.

The Cultural heritage of Europe’s maritime and fluvial regions form an essential part of the coastal landscape. This heritage is considered particular vulnerable exposed to spatial changes in transport, industrialisation of fisheries and use of coastal zones for tourism. The project started 1 April 2016 and ends 30 September 2020 and received under the Interreg Europe programme a 1.728.536 EUR co-funding.

The partnership covers eight partners from six countries (NO,RO,ES,IT,NL,IE).
Through Hericoast regional policy instruments are improved through new projects, improved governance and structural change. It has been calculated that it generated an important multiplicator effect: 7.000.000 EUR in Structural Funds are estimated to be influenced by the project, as well as 1.030.000 EUR of other funds. The number of visitors to cultural heritage sites has increased and public access to these sites improved.    
Under the programme a toolbox and a series of good practice projects were developed and tested. They can offer ideas and experiences to all those committed to maritime and fluvial heritage.        

The 7 Most Endangered identifies the most threatened monuments, sites and landscapes in Europe and mobilises public and private partners at all levels to find a viable future for these heritage gems.
‘The 7 Most Endangered’ programme was launched in 2013 by Europa Nostra with the European Investment Bank Institute as founding partner and the Council of Europe Development Bank as associated partner. It is supported by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union, as part of Europa Nostra’s networking project “Sharing Heritage – Sharing Values” (2017-2020).
Every two years, a new list of 7 Most Endangered heritage sites in Europe is published. Multidisciplinary teams of heritage and financial experts undertake rescue missions to the selected sites and help formulate a feasible action plan for each of them.
 

The two industrial sites nominated are - and even if they wouldn't be selected for the final list with EFAITH we fuilly support the initiatives to save them, and we call everyone to do the same.

• Szombierki Power Plant, Bytom, POLAND
  A Modernist power plant with huge potential for reuse is threatened by the risk of demolition. Szombierki functioned for almost 80 years and is one of the last hard-coal powered electric power plants in Europe. For the past two decades, it has been vacant and slowly deteriorated in spite of several efforts to turn the site over to cultural uses.
  The Foundation for the Protection of Silesian Industrial Heritage is the nominator of the site,

• Cuatro Caminos Metro Depot, Madrid, SPAIN
  After more than 100 years of continuous use, this metro depot in the northern neighbourhood of Cuatro Caminos in Madrid now faces the threat of demolition to make way for a large apartment building.This depot was the first that was built for a metro system in Spain and is an essential part of the history of the Madrid Metro.
  Though some sheds from the depot have been lost, the remaining structures are relatively well-preserved. Its misuse and lack of maintenance however, coupled with the use of inappropriate materials, such as asbestos, mean that urgent intervention is needed.
  The Fundación Ars Civilis is the nominator of the site and campaigns for the recognition of the depot as a vital element of Madrid’s history.

The Government of the Walloon Region asks its administration to draw up an inventory of the endangered industrial heritage. A good example to be promoted to other regions and countries

During the European Cultural Heritage Forum in Paris, the Flemish Association for Industrial Archaeology received a European Cultural Heritage Award/Europa Nostra Award 2019 for Dedicated Service, for its commitment to industrial heritage since 1978 - only with volunteers and in all those years without structural subsidies from the government.

---

For the restoration of an Art Nouveau building, Villa Dageraad in Eeklo, current Hotel Shamon, architects are looking for glazed bricks or tiles, with a specific size and colour. Since they no longer find any producers of these in Belgium, they make an appeal to foreign suppliers via EFAITH.
Who can help, can contact architect Pascal Dejaegher

In in January the cultural-artistic association Le Non-Lieu filed an objection against the possible demolition of the chimneys of the Van Robaeys flax mill in Quesnoy-sur-Deûle (Northern France) . The demolition of the site had started, under the auspices of the Établissement public foncier (EPF, public land company),  and would last six months. In their objection, Le Non Lieu voiced opinion of many citizens in favour of the preservation of the two chimneys.
At the end of February, the demolition permit was suspended by the municipal authority, which is requesting a new and "further" study on the re-use of the site.
This is further proof of the importance of the intervention of civil society in order to safeguard the industrial heritage.

The Industriemuseum Schönebeck - Erlebniswelt Technik (Industrial Museum Schönebeck - The World of Technology Experience, Imuset) was founded as an association in 2009 and thus celebrates its tenth anniversary last year. The aims of the association are to preserve the museum buildings, to commemorate the industrial history of Schönebeck, to hold exhibitions and to support inventors and artists. Annual events include the Bormann fashion show, the tractor meeting, film evenings, open days and various art exhibitions. The Imuset association has 35 members.             

The Industrial Museum is housed in the former electric power plant, which was inaugurated in 1909. The engine house with the residence of the plant engineer (built in 1908) and the director's villa (built in 1901) are listed buildings and together with the transformer building with control room (built around 1952) they form an ensemble of great architectural value.

VIDA is a Greek association that promotes the material evidence of industrial Greece by inventoring and recording it. On their website they developed on a map a detailed database and information on industrial ircheology in Greece, thanks to their volunteers. This should contribute positively to the research, the saving and restoration of  industrial monuments. It is obvious that this effort does not stop at simply recording and showing  these monuments, but it is part of an overall effort to preserve the memory of  professions and activities that have disappeared.
In the database one finds information on chemical and food industries, wineries, flour mills, water mills, port facilities, textile mills, machine workshops and foundries, transport infrastructure, mines and quarries,... For sure, it is an impressive overview of Greece’s industrial heritage.

The 'LocHal' was originally built in 1932 for the maintenance and repair of trains and is over 18 meters tall. The space was going to be demolished before its potential was realised by a group of architects. In 2010 the building was converted into an exhibition space, library and cafe.
The prestigious prize was awarded on Friday 6 December during the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Amsterdam.
The jury especially praised the openness of the publicly accessible building. "A wide variety of Tilburg residents make use of the variation in the size of the spaces for different purposes. The incidence of light in the building and the interaction with the industrial heritage also appeal to the imagination".

The City Council of Vila-Real decided to preserve the country’s older hydroelectric power plant and to turn it into a museum.
The Vila Real hydroelectric power plant was the first one of its kind in Portugal. It was inaugurated in 1894, after being built by Kerl Emil Biel, a German, who took on the name Emilio Biel after settling in Portugal in 1857. The power plant operated on the Corgo River until it was decommissioned in 1926. Since then, it has been left abandoned at the mercy of the passage time.
The local government of Vila Real will invest over 830 thousand euros in the first phase of renovations efforts that would see the hundreds-of-years-old building spared the ravages of time. The total cost will be 1.7 million and was approved  under the EU Structural Funds.    
the European Regional Development Fund, through PROVERE, a programme to stimulate the economy using endogenous resources.

---

National Network of Industrial Tourism planned
The second day of the Industry, History and Heritage Meeting, which took place in January of this year in S. João da Madeira was marked by the presentation of the action plan for the creation of a National Network of Industrial Tourism between 2020 and 2022 by the Tourism Departrment of Portugal. The objective of this plan is "the development of a differentiated tourist offer, anchored in the territories' assets, also implementing an industrial tourism network, which reinforces the attractiveness of low-density territories and captures national and international markets, in line with the Tourism 2027 strategy of affirming Portugal as a sustainable tourist destination, with a cohesive, innovative and competitive territory, and promoting the expansion of the activity throughout the country, throughout the year". "Until 2022 actions will be developed in the scope of resources, product, promotion and sales, as well as in the management model, which foresees the constitution of a dynamic group and the celebration of a memorandum of understanding between the public and private partners", explained the Municipality to the work.

• O segundo dia do Encontro Indústria, História e Património ficou marcado pela apresentação doplano de ação para a criação de uma Rede Nacional de Turismo Industrial entre 2020 e 2022 por parte do Turismo de Portugal em conjunto com a Câmara Municipal de S. João da Madeira.        

The town council of Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo Town Hall has approved the transfer of the railway house of the Via de La Estrecha to the La Maquinilla association. This association is committed to the saving of local industrial heritage and chimneys, and develops a network of greenways on old railway tracks

---

The City Council of Villablino has requested the Junta de Castilla y León to acquire the industrial land, industrial buildings and mining heritage of the region belonging to the Coto Minero Cantábrico (CMC) company
Regarding mining heritage, the mayor points out that there are two valuable infrastructures in the region. One would be the Pozo María located, in Caboalles de Abajo, and the other the Pozo Calderón, in the Orallo district.  
These are on sale but there doesn’t seem to be any interest by buyers or investors, and the mayor of the municipality, Mario Rivas, would like  to give them a ‘second life’
He is asking that the regional administration takes up the responsibilities and then studies the possibilities of management ‘shared or owned by the City Council’. The City Council likes to preserve this heritage and give it an exclusively tourist use.

• El Ayuntamiento de Villablino ha solicitado a la Junta de Castilla y León que adquiera el suelo industrial, naves industriales y el patrimonio minero de la comarca pertenecientes a la empresa Coto Minero Cantábrico (CMC) y que están en proceso de subasta para darle una «segunda vida»

---

A magnificent project that encourages Catalan citizens to identify and document their industrial heritage "Museu al Carrer" - the museum in the street.
Without the help of civilians, we just walk past a lot of heritage...

---

Texts for this e-newsletter can be sent in every major European language, if a summary in English or French is joined.
Next issue will be sent out in the second haf of April and we would like to receive your news before April 15th

Des textes pour cette lettre d'information électronique peuvent nous être envoyés dans toutes les grandes langues européennes, à condition d'y joindre un résumé en anglais ou en français.
Le prochain numéro sera envoyé au cours de la deuxième moitié du mois d'avril et nous aimerions recevoir vos nouvelles avant le 15 avril