At Quiosq, our mission is to serve citizens through European grants and partnerships. Our philosophy is that knowledge of cultural heritage – one’s own as well as that of others – helps to cultivate greater appreciation for each other, and contributes to greater well-being of the inhabitants of Europe and ultimately to more harmonious form of European unification. But said citizen is usually not our direct point of contact, or “customer” in marketing terms. We need projects and cooperation partners to realize our mission. Which is the most attractive – but also challenging – part of our work.

The city of Klaipeda is today Lithuania’s main (and really only) port, on the west coast, hidden behind a land tongue that connects to the Russian exclave of the Kaliningradskaya Oblast. For most of its modern history it was known as the German city of Memel, right at the northern edge of Prussian and later German territory. After the Treaty of Versailles, it was ceded to the new state of Lithuania and became Klaipeda, although still overwhelmingly German in terms of population. It was re-conquered by Nazi Germany as agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact of 1939, experienced horrific slaughter during and after the war (both under Nazi and Soviet dominance)…

Malta formed the paradisiacal backdrop of the first live meeting of the partners in the Revintage project at the end of August, hosted by our friends from VisMedNet. In several presentations and workshops, we got a better grip on the subject, the valuation and preservation of post-war European interiors. Especially inspiring was the contribution of six experts from Malta itself. They spoke to us about the problems they encounter in carrying out their work to preserve Malta’s heritage. They too have to deal with the fact that heritage from the second half of the last century often does not qualify for full protection because it is not yet regarded as…

Allow me to present you with the Lion of Gripsholm Castle, near Stockholm in Sweden. It’s a very odd-looking creature with a somewhat tortured history. Originally, the (then alive) lion was gifted by the Bey of Algiers to King Frederick I of Sweden in 1731. When it lion died, it was skinned, and the bones were also preserved.

  The modern age, with its focus on issues such as sustainability and inclusion, poses new challenges for leading cultural heritage institutions. To help find new, innovative ways of addressing these in the management of heritage, Quiosq enthusiastically joined the proposal for the Erasmus+ project BACH (Business Acumen and Communication for Heritage).

We have already told you about the CRISP project, meant to research COVID-related initiatives in the cultural heritage sector focusing on best practices. It is something dear to our hearts, also because it was the very first project we initiated ourselves.

The Berlin Stadschloss, or Humboldt-Forum by its official name, has finally opened.[1]Its literal translation into English would be “city castle”, but that doesn’t do it entirely justice since it was never a fortification. “City palace” seems more accurate. After decades of architectural and ideological haranguing, it was completed largely within budget and within the time allotted, something of an achievement in modern Berlin, it seems. And despite the criticism, I want to argue that the palace that we see today is an almost perfect solution: for the site, but more importantly for the city. The original palace was removed in 1950 because the authorities of the GDR considered it too…