Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe
About this book
Cultural Heritage Counts for Europe (CHCfE), published in 2015 by Europa Nostra and the European Investment Bank Institute, with support from the European Commission, represents the first comprehensive pan-European study quantifying the economic, social, cultural, and environmental contributions of cultural heritage to European society and the European project. Developed over three years with research teams from 13 countries, the report fills a critical evidence gap that had long hampered the case for public investment in heritage conservation. The report opens with a conceptual framework distinguishing between the direct and indirect values of cultural heritage.
Direct economic values include tourism receipts (cultural tourism generating over €335 billion annually in Europe at the time of study), employment in heritage sectors (3.3 million direct jobs), and the output of cultural and creative industries closely linked to heritage. Indirect economic values include the impact of heritage on property values in historic areas, heritage's role in regeneration and place branding, and the contribution of traditional crafts and vernacular architecture to construction sector revenues. Social values are examined through evidence on heritage's contribution to social cohesion and identity — particularly in post-conflict reconciliation contexts (Mostar, Sarajevo, the Balkans) and post-industrial regeneration (Bilbao, Essen, Sheffield) — as well as mental health and well-being benefits documented through user studies of heritage sites, and the role of intangible heritage in sustaining minority and regional identities.
The cultural value dimension is examined through frameworks including the concept of Outstanding Universal Value (UNESCO), the notion of cultural landscapes as repositories of accumulated human knowledge of place, and the creative influence of heritage on contemporary art, design, architecture, and film. Environmental dimensions of heritage conservation are assessed: adaptive reuse of historic buildings as an alternative to demolition and new construction (with significantly lower embodied carbon), the embodied energy in existing building stock, the urban heat island mitigation provided by historic street patterns and building materials, and the biodiversity value of traditional agricultural landscapes. The report concludes with 100 evidence-based recommendations across four policy domains: the integration of cultural heritage into EU structural funds; heritage in education systems; the development of EU-wide heritage skills and training programmes; and the creation of a European Heritage Observatory for systematic monitoring and research coordination.