Greek antiquity has long been regarded as the cradle of Europe, but now we have another one alongside it. In many ways, the heritage left behind by Charlemagne in his vast early-mediaeval
empire forms the cultural cradle of today’s Europe. This is the basis of the European project Cradles of European Culture. The CLUE research institute at VU University Amsterdam is collaborating with cultural partners from nine European countries in breathing new life into the heritage of Charlemagne and linking it to the problems and opportunities in Europe today. The project was presented in the European Parliament in Brussels on Tuesday 23 April. Dean Prof. Dr. Michel ter Hark (Faculty of Arts), Prof. Dr. Koos Bosma and researcher Linde Egberts went there to present CLUE’s contribution to the project.

Besides being a political and economic cooperation, Europe is also a cultural space that facilitates encounter, dialogue and sometimes conflict as well. The idea of Europe stems from the early Middle Ages; a period relatively unknown to many, in which cultural expressions like architecture, book illumination, music and painting underwent great and rapid development. This ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ took place in a world where imperial warfare and the dissemination of Christianity combined to link up large parts of Europe. However, it never became a political and cultural entity,
and regional diversity remained strongly present, as is the case today in fact.

CLUE is a partner in the project Cradles of European Culture, which will result in an international touring exhibition and a tourist heritage route right across Europe, linking important early-mediaeval places and making them accessible to a wide public, in a real ‘heritage revival’. CLUE plays a special role in the project, as unlike the other partners it does not own any mediaeval art or archaeological treasures. Rather it takes on the role of pioneer in creating new revival concepts. CLUE is a research institute that focuses on studying heritage practices in today’s landscapes and cities. Based on this expertise, Koos Bosma (coordinator) and Linde Egberts (editor) are developing a guidebook to the world of heritage experience. How can a group of archaeologists and historians best tell such an unfamiliar story to a wide public? Through a website with lots of interesting information and beautiful illustrations, or by pulling out even more stops? And how do you make the international character of the project accessible at all the places along a heritage route? What is the added value of using popular computer games like Assassin’s Creed, Hollywood films like Pope Joan or hobbyists dressed as mediaeval knights? And how do you combine all these elements into a meaningful whole? This new CLUE guidebook forms the overture to Cradles of European Culture, but it is also aimed at others who are starting their own heritage revival. The first presentation was in Brussels, and the guidebook is due to be published shortly.

For more than two milleniums culture has been used as a justification both for ‘European’ political unity and as an excuse for (sometimes extreme) nationalism. This begins with the subjugation of peoples by the Roman Empire – and continues through time with various imperial ambitions (Charlemagne, the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburgian empire etc) and associated struggles for national independence. In the twentieth century this familiar historical narrative culminates ultimately in the extreme tragedies of the First and Second World Wars, followed by the emergence (before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain) of a more united Europe during our own lifetimes. The tensions that often result from these different processes (all rooted one way or another in the use or misuse of cultural identity) have often resulted in bloody conflicts and caused immense suffering to the peoples of Europe.

The CEC project takes the early medieval Carolingian and Ottonian Empire as a starting point, and promotes the idea of Europe as a cultural space where these different tensions can be mediated (and ultimately resolved). The project provides an observatory and a laboratory where the relationship between cultural and national identity can be discussed in a series of dialogues with civil society from both historical and 21st century perspectives. These dialogues will help society understand the lessons from the past and contribute to the future evolution of Europe as a unifying intellectual and geopolitical concept which at the same time retains its characteristic cultural and national diversity.

CLUE is one of the partners in the ‘Cradles’-project.

Program:

- MEP Katarína Neveďalová: Welcome the participants and introduce the theme of the event

- Jozef Dauwe, Deputy Province of East Flanders. Localism: the importance of European projects for the regions and provinces

- Dirk Callebaut, Scientific coordinator. Cradles of European Culture; project: objectives and the international exhibition “The legacy of Charlemagne”: current European problems in a new perspective (814-2014)

- Mgr. Jana Maříková-Kubková Ph.D., Prague Institute of Archaeology. Travelling through different worlds: the “Francia Media Heritage Route

- Linde Egberts MA, Researcher CLUE. Presenting Heritage: the project’s Handbook

- Katalin Wollák, President of the Europae Archaeologiae Consilium. Heritage reinvents Europe

- Adrian Olivier, consultant European Heritage Management. A sustainable future: the Francia Media Association

- Conclusions and closing remarks by MEP Katarína Neveďalová and Dirk Callebaut

Basic information:

The European project “Cradles of European Culture” (CEC)

Tuesday, April 23rd, European Parliament

Altiero Spinelli Building Brussels

15.00h – 16.30h