Holistic Heritage

Free Range Productions, Towarzystwo Miłośników Historii i Zabytków Krakowa

Holistic Heritage brings conversations, opinions and thoughts on heritage from Central and Eastern Europe. Join Katarzyna Jagodzińska and John Beauchamp as they interview heritage leaders and discover the most inspiring projects from across the region. Brought to you by the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków. read less
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Episodes

On The Road: Balkan discoveries
17-12-2024
On The Road: Balkan discoveries
Following our visit to the Tășuleasa Social and hiking a part of the Via Transilvanica (you can hear more in our episode on the Via Transilvanica here), we decide to carry on our journey through Romania and Bulgaria by taking in a few heritage sites. Our first destination is the village of Viscri, an old Saxon village which is home to a fortified church, one of seven Villages with Fortified Churches in Transylvania inscribed onto UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 1999. Viscri also caught the attention of the British Royal Family, when Prince Charles – now King Charles III – bought a house there in 2006 and has since become an advocate for the region’s rich cultural heritage. After stopping off south of Bucharest for lunch we head over the Friendship Bridge into Bulgaria.Veliko Tarnovo, one of the oldest settlements in Bulgaria, has a history spanning some five millennia. It was the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire and is now one of the country’s cultural centres. We visit the scenic hillside town and the old fortress of Tsarevets and then head for the Tuesday market in Pavlikeni – where we try some Bulgarian street food – and then hit the road towards the Black Sea coast.Up in the hills not too far away from Varna we visit another UNESCO heritage site. The Madara Rider or Madara Horseman is a large early medieval rock relief in the mountains near Shumen depicting a majestic rider. What is amazing about the site, however, is the fact that it is larger than life and is still visible after well over 1000 years.After going offline at Camping Kosmos in Durankulak, we head up towards the Danube Delta and stay in the port town of Tulcea before heading up over the Carpathians and towards the Bucovina region and the Humor Monastery, one of eight ‘Churches of Moldavia’ inscribed in to the UNESCO World Heritage list.We end the podcast at the National Museum of the Village in Bucharest. But we are already planning our next road trip!
Spotlight on Europe’s cultural heritage ‘Oscar’
05-11-2024
Spotlight on Europe’s cultural heritage ‘Oscar’
In the latest podcast in the Holistic Heritage series, the Kraków Heritage Hub’s John Beauchamp is in Bucharest for the 2024 European Cultural Heritage Summit, where he takes a closer look at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards.Since 2002, the awards have championed the best cultural heritage initiatives from across Europe, with a total of just under 4,000 entries from as many as 46 countries. Why is the award so popular? And for all the programmes which have been awarded, what has the impact been of the award? Find out why it is so important to apply and get your project highlighted by Europe’s leading cultural heritage organisation.In the podcast we hear from Jacek Purchla, Vice-President of Europa Nostra who was also Chairman of the awards jury in 2024. We also hear from Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, Europa Nostra board member and director of the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, and Elena Bianchi, Programme Manager of the European Heritage Awards at Europa Nostra, who explains the ins and outs of the prize.And what about the former winners? How has the award made an influence on their projects? We hear from Eugen Vaida, who is now a jury member but whose Ambulance for Momuments project rescues heritage-listed buildings across Romania (2020). Additionally, we hear from Anna Szekely from the Via Transilvanica in Romania (2023), Francesca Moncada from Le Dimore del Quartetto (2019), as well as this year’s winners: Łucja Cieślar and Paulina Adamska from the Serfenta Assocation in Cieszyn (Poland), Marek Gołosz from the Ignacy Historic Mine in Rybnik (Poland), and Caroline Fernolend from the Mihai Eminescu Trust (Romania).Do you have an amazing initiative which fits the bill and you think could win a prize? You can find out more details here.
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Podlasie
15-10-2024
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Podlasie
In our search for the cultural heritage of Ukrainians in Poland we have arrived in Podlasie – a region encompassing the Polish-Belarusian borderland, with the Narew river meandering through its centre and the World Heritage listed Białowieża forest straddling the border.For decades, Ukrainian inhabitants of this land have been struggling with a harmful stereotype that this region – as a national and cultural borderland – is a contact point between Poles and Belarusians. This has seemingly condemned the ethnically Ukrainian population of this area to oblivion. Yet a great many Orthodox inhabitants of the villages and towns between the Bug and the Narew rivers belong to the Ukrainian ethnic area in terms of language, material culture and folklore.The cultural identity of Ukrainians who are still living in the area is strong, but they indicate that it’s fading. People are moving out to other regions or abroad, children don’t use the language of their grandparents any longer in their daily communication, and in the meantime whatever traditional architecture remains is falling apart.However, all is not lost, and it would be skepticism to say that it was too late to keep this heritage alive. The Kraków Heritage Hub’s John Beauchamp together with Katarzyna Jagodzińska are at a local privately-owned open-air museum, Skansen Koźliki, where they meet Jerzy Misiejuk to find the tangible essence of Ukrainian Podlasie.Also in the episode, we meet a number of local activists and researchers connected to the Podlasie Scientific Institute  in Bielsk Podlaski. We hear from journalist Jerzy Gawryluk, the editor-in-chief of local Ukrainian-language newspaper Nad Buhom i Narwoju, local poet Eugenia Gawryluk, teachers Elżbieta Tomczuk from Bielsk Podlaski and Irena Wiszenko from Czeremcha, the home of the Hiłoczka Ukrainian youth song  ensemble. We also meet Maria Ryżyk, head of the Association of Ukrainians in Podlasie and a member of the local council in Bielsk Podlaski.This podcast was produced as part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukrainians in Poland: Mapping and Dissemination” project realised by the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University with the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków. The project is led by Dr Olga Kich-Masłej from the Department of Polish-Ukrainian Studies.The funding was provided by the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Łemkowszczyzna
20-09-2024
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Łemkowszczyzna
We are in the Beskid Niski mountain range in southern Poland which is home of the Lemkos, an ethnic group of Carpathian highlanders. They have their own language, which may be classified as a dialect of Rusyn, akin to Ukrainian, and have been here in the Polish Carpathians for generations.The latest Polish census data from 2021 reveals that a fraction over 13,600 people are Lemko or identify as having a mixed Lemko identity. What is interesting, though, is that the majority of Lemkos don’t live here in Lemkovyna. A closer look at the statistics reveals that more Lemkos live in Dolny Śląsk in the south-west, than in Małopolska, which is home to the Beskid Niski.In the episode, the Hub’s John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska travel across green hills and virgin landscapes to visit people who struggle against the odds to save their heritage, build recognition and empower a new generation to continue the development of the customs, traditions, skills and the language.We meet Mychajło Markowicz, founder of the Nowycia Foundation in Nowica which aims to promote Ukrainian culture in the Beskid Niski. The wooden building where foundation is located - known as a chyża - in the past used to be a place for meetings and the exchange of information, a latter-day Whatsapp or social media platform. Nowadays, as Markowicz himself says, the Nowica Foundation wants to fill this gap and be a sort of Lemko internet.Then we have a late breakfast at the agrotourism farm ‘Swystowy Sad’ in Ropki run by Grażyna Betlej-Furman, who tells us about Lemko cuisine, local produce and the way of life in Lemkovyna.In the village of Łosie we speak to Wasyl Szlanta, whose professional life revolved around traditional tar making and who was one of the founders of the Łemkowska Watra festival.In Sękowa we visit the Majsternia Karpat workshop and inn run by Anna Czuchta and Piotr Jasion. We learn about changing Lemko language, local cuisine and herbs.Finally we have a meeting with Julia Doszna, a famous Lemko singer for whom Lemko language and traditional singing is an integral part of her identity.All the people we met during several days of our journey finally come together at Łemkowska Watra (or Lemkivska Vatra), the biggest Lemko culture festival, which is a compulsory event in the yearly calendar, not just for Lemkos, but for the wide community of Ukrainians.This podcast was produced as part of the “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukrainians in Poland: Mapping and Dissemination” project realised by the Faculty of International and Political Studies at the Jagiellonian University with the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków. The project is led by Dr Olga Kich-Masłej from the Department of Polish-Ukrainian Studies.The funding was provided by the Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative at the Jagiellonian University.
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Nadsanie
20-08-2024
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Nadsanie
We are in Przemyśl which plays host to the Narodniy Dim – the National House – which is run by the Association of Ukrainians in Poland. A number of families which were deported from this area in 1947 as part of Operation Vistula have since returned and are cultivating their regional traditions, language and music.We take a look at some of these stories as part of a project which aims to draw attention to Ukrainian cultural heritage and its rekindling after years of neglect.In the episode, the Hub’s John Beauchamp and Katarzyna Jagodzińska are in Przemyśl to meet a number of Ukrainian activists,including:Igor Horków – director of the Narodniy Dim in Przemyśl who underlines that the house open “for everyone”Maria Tucka – a local educator who promotes regional costumes and the ‘Pearls of the Borderland’ ethnographic collectionMaria Mryczko – a local artist who works with papercutting as part of the Narodniy Dim’s activitiesTatiana Czarna-Nakonieczna – a local activist who runs the ‘Krajka’ and ‘Krajeczka’ folk music groupsIn the podcast we also hear from Tatiana Harasym and Aleksandra Steć from Krajka. Daria Pulkovska joins them for the vocal pieces presented in the podcast. Maksym Nakonieczny (Tatiana’s son) also makes an appearance as the frontman of the Hraybery folk ensemble, which also accompanies Krajeczka.This podcast was made as part of the academic research project “Intangible Cultural Heritage of Ukrainians in Poland: Mapping and Dissemination”. The project is funded by the Jagiellonian University as part of its Strategic Programme Excellence Initiative.
On The Road: Harnessing the power of Ukrainian heritage
06-06-2024
On The Road: Harnessing the power of Ukrainian heritage
Physical damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage is very real. Official figures from UNESCO dated 10 April 2024 reveal verified damage to 351 sites since 24 February 2022, including religious sites, museums and monuments, as well as other heritage sites.For the inaugural episode, I’m in Lviv, Ukraine’s western gateway, where we meet leading cultural figures to learn what is being done to preserve – and save – Ukrainian cultural heritage in light of the continuing conflict with Russia.Lilia Onyshchenko-Shvets is advisor to the Mayor of Lviv on heritage protection. We meet her in her office near the old Arsenal in downtown Lviv. “We were absolutely not prepared for what happened on 22 February,” she says of the outbreak of war. “We simply didn’t think it could happen” she says of the full-scale Russian invasion.In the podcast, we also hear how Vasyl Rozhko from the НеМо: Ukrainian Heritage Monitoring Lab is systematically assessing damage done to Ukrainian heritage, including information which may be used for criminal proceedings against the Russian Federation.Dr. Iryna Sklokina is a Research Fellow at the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe in Lviv. In 2023, her project – Un/Archiving Post/Industry – won an Europa Nostra heritage award in the category “Citizen Engagement and Awareness Raising”. She explains how the war has raised awareness among Ukrainians of their cultural heritage.In Lviv’s opulent Potocki Palace I meet with Taras Voznyak, director of the Lviv National Art Gallery. He explains the situation of museum collections across the country and what is being done to protect them.We also visit the Ukrainian Catholic University. It’s here where leading Ukrainian historian, Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak explains what’s at stake for the Ukrainian people.
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Jak ochronić dziedzictwo?
10-05-2024
Ukraine Heritage Spotlight: Jak ochronić dziedzictwo?
W 2023 roku historyczne centrum Lwowa zostało wpisane na Listę światowego dziedzictwa UNESCO w zagrożeniu. Decyzję Światowego Komitetu wymusiła trwająca od lutego 2022 roku pełnoskalowa inwazja wojsk rosyjskich na terenie Ukrainy. Choć Lwów jest położony daleko od frontu, od początku wojny w tym regionie zniszczone zostały trzy obiekty dziedzictwa.Jak dzisiaj wygląda sytuacja zabytków we Lwowie, partnerskim mieście Krakowa? Jakie przygotowania przed atakiem zbrojnym zostały w mieście poczynione? Jakie są wyzwania, potrzeby, plany? Aby się tego dowiedzieć, udaliśmy się w kwietniu 2024 roku w podróż za wschodnią granicę. Naszą przewodniczką jest Lilia Onyshchenko-Shvets, doradca mera Lwowa ds. ochrony dziedzictwa kulturowego, w przeszłości główna konserwator Lwowa.Idąc na spotkanie mijamy pomniki zamknięte w ochronnych klatkach, kościoły z oknami witrażowymi zasłoniętymi płytami z dykty, worki z piaskiem na chodnikach i jeże przeciwczołgowe w każdej chwili gotowe do rozstawienia na ulicach. Spotykamy się w Miejskim Biurze ds. dziedzictwa przy ul. Wałowej. W historycznym budynku dawnych koszarów zeskładowane są drzwi, ławy i inne elementy wyposażenia z okolicznych kościołów i zabytkowych budynków. W rozmowie z Johnem Beauchamp i  Katarzyną Jagodzińską, kierowniczką regionalnego centrum Europa Nostra w Krakowie – Europa Nostra Heritage Hub, Lilia Onyshchenko-Shvets mówi nie tylko o sytuacji Lwowa, ale odnosi się do całej Ukrainy oraz wskazuje na różnice między wschodem i zachodem kraju.