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European Heritage Days

on Sep 07, 2011

Monuments are exciting to see from the outside – but once a year a whole lot of monuments opens up, and shows what is behind those doors! The European Heritage Days offer everybody the opportunity to get to know more about the monuments throughout Europe – many monument owners cooperate by voluntarily opening their buildings and allowing public to enter.

During European Heritage Days many monuments and cultural heritage related institutions open up for visitors. Here the (now collapsed) Historical Archive of the City of Cologne, Germany

Most European countries have their Heritage Days in September – which makes it also a wonderful opportunity to make some really exciting photos for the contest which are much harder to make the rest of the year. You can find a full overview of all organizing committees with the dates they organize their Heritage Days on the website of of the Council of Europe, which is organizing the days together with the European Commission.

Don’t forget: if you want to take pictures inside a building, always ask permission to the owner/guide of the building. We are guest in their building, and some people don’t appreciate pictures of their house or building being published on the internet.

Coming weekend, 10 & 11 September, there is European Heritage Days in Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden and Switzerland. 17 & 18 September the monuments will open up in Andorra, Brussels, France, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland (yes, twice!) and Romania. And in the last weekend of the month, events take place in Austria and Portugal. Check the website of the European Heritage Days for details.

 

Historical Archive of the City of Cologne

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