site.btaImmovable Cultural Heritage Institute, Ecole de Chaillot Start Project with Romania, Moldova

A large-scale study of the development of the 19th and 20th century Black Sea resorts will be the subject of a major study by the Chaillot Centre for Architecture and Cultural Heritage and the National Institute for Immovable Cultural Heritage (NIICH), together with architects from Romania and Moldova. The project starts in September аnd Bulgaria will be the regional hub of the partnership, the Institute said Monday.

The aim of the partnership project is to broaden cooperation in the field of education in Southeast Europe and to unite the efforts of teachers and experts in institutions from Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova and France, NIICH said.

The team of the institute added that in the first stage Romanian and Moldovan architects will join the specialized course Chaillot in Bulgaria, the oldest and most sustainable international partnership of the French school with 20 years of history.

"The focus of the training and research will be cultural diversity and issues in tourism development, ecology and patrimonialization - making sense of the value of the heritage. This is the beginning of a partnership network for the preservation of the common trans-European heritage in the much wider geographical and cultural context between the Black Sea and the Languedoc. According to the authors of the idea, the European space shares architectural currents that form a common cultural basis. One example is the striking resemblance between the resorts of Albena in Bulgaria and Grand Motte in France, which were created almost simultaneously in the late 1970s and early 1980s," the NIICH said.

In a second phase, in 2025-2026, the project could be extended to the countries along the Adriatic coast - Albania, Montenegro and Croatia.

"The initiative of the Chaillot Institute and NIICH is supported by the Ministries of Culture of Bulgaria and Romania, the French Institutes in Bucharest and Sofia and the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which is based in France. The French Ministry of Culture is also supporting the programme with funding of EUR 25,000, with a further EUR 5,000 provided by NIICH," the team said.