Politiche sui patrimoni culturali: uno sguardo indietro per fare il punto

Even before the integration in a multinational entity, culture has been fundamental in the making of Europe, maintaining within itself a remarkable diversity. From 1986 onwards, the Framework Programmes have supported and financed more than 120 projects in the field of cultural heritage, linking about 500 public and private research organisations - universities, research centres, museums, firms - overall the Union and among its Mediterranean partners, aiming at developing and applying state-of-the-art technology and the best know how to our cultural heritage. During the same period, in Italy we can single out two great research areas in this sphere; they had a different origin and different objectives - the first one concerned high level professional training, the second one regarded applied research - but dealt indeed successfully with the same issues. The two were the Cultural Fields Programme (1989-1991) and the Finalised Project Cultural Heritage of the National Research Council (1996-2000), prepared by a Strategic Project with the same name, in the previous three-year period (1992-1995). At the international level, along with the above mentioned public interventions in Europe and Italy, on the 16 November 1972, during its 17th general Conference, the Organisation of United Nations for Education, Science and Culture, adopted the Convention for the Protection of the World Natural and Cultural Heritage, in order to build up a list of sites (historical centres, monuments, landscape areas) on the basis of which it could start protection and development actions for these places. Also during the 1980s and beyond, while the United Nations promoted the World Decade for Cultural Development (1988-1997) several experts' groups dealt with these problems, originating an in-depth discussion whose results were embodied, in the following decade, in the Convention for the Protection of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003.