For its commitment for the European cultural heritage, the European Heritage Volunteers Network has won a European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2025 in the category “Education, Training & Skills”.

Now you can help us also win the Public Choice Award! The voting will be open until 12th of September 2025.

How to Vote for Us

Scan or click the QR-Code to access the official voting page for the Public Choice Award 2025.

Once there, search for “European Heritage Volunteers Programme – Germany” in the list of laureates (you’ll find it around the middle of the page). If you're using a laptop, you can press Ctrl+F and type the name to locate it quickly.

• Cast your first vote for us.
• You will then be asked to select two additional candidates.
• After that, provide your contact information and click “Send your vote.”
• Finally, confirm your vote by clicking the link in the confirmation email you receive (please check your spam/junk folder if it doesn’t appear right away).

Thank you for supporting the engagement of the young generation in preserving Europe’s cultural heritage!

Watch the video to get to know more about the European Heritage Volunteers Programme!

 

 

The Bronze Plaque for the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2025 travels across Europe in a journey of celebration!

On the 26th of June 2025, in the Parliament of Brandenburg in Potsdam, a bronze plaque was handed to European Heritage Volunteers. It carried with it the recognition of the European Heritage Award / Europa Nostra Award 2025 in the category “Education, Training & Skills”. Rather than being placed quietly in an office or exhibition space, the plaque immediately set out on a journey, becoming a travelling emblem of a European wide network that thrives on connection, dynamism, movement, and collaboration.

Its first stop was Gantikow Manor, north of Berlin, where this year’s team of group coordinators for the European Heritage Volunteers Programme from across Europe and beyond gathered for their training seminar. These young professionals, who accompany, guide, and support the international groups throughout the season, form the backbone of the programme. It was fitting that they were the first to receive the bronze plaque, as a trophy honouring their dedication and marking their transition into the bearers of a demanding mission, but above all as a shared symbol of trust, recognition, and collaboration. In their hands, the award became a reminder that it belongs to everyone whose commitment makes the training courses and volunteering projects possible. 

From there, the plaque set out on its journey, crossing borders and landscapes, riding cars, buses and trains, and at one point even carried through kilometres in a backpack over steep mountain paths (Yes, this really happened!). Wherever it appeared, it was greeted with warmth and pride, igniting recognition and turning each arrival into a moment of celebration.

The plaque arrived at Lauenstein Castle, framed by the forests of Saxony, where an international group of young conservators received it amidst their work restoring Renaissance frescoes. In Austria, at Mauerbach Charterhouse, participants conserving masonry and architectural surfaces in lime technology welcomed it as part of their training course. In Hungary, it was received in the gardens and palaces of Fejér County, where our group worked hard to contribute with the valorisation and revitalisation of these beautiful garden landscapes. In Slovenia, it entered the cloisters of Stična Abbey, where centuries-old stone surfaces were carefully conserved by our international team.

Slovakia received it at Tematín Castle, where century-old walls were raised with teamwork and endurance. In Lithuania it reached the Open-Air Museum of Rumšiškės, where the Assumption of Mary was celebrated with music, crafts, and the unveiling of the group’s finished work. In Latvia, the journey unfolded across two remarkable sites: at Lielstraupe Castle the plaque was carried into a festival alive with concerts, exhibitions, and community pride, while at Āraiši Archaeological Park it stood by as logs were carved and fitted into the frame of a reconstructed Viking Age house. 

In Germany’s Ore Mountains, it was welcomed by the people of the mining tradition and the emerging heritage professionals working on the Röhrgraben, a water system that once sustained centuries of mining. From there it travelled to Seiffen, where amidst the Toy Makers Festival it was lifted with pride by the Prime Minister of Saxony and embraced by the community whose wooden craft traditions are known across the world.

The journey then carried it to Naumburg, where the plaque rested among the historic gravestones of the cathedral cemetery, where participants recorded fragile memorials and shared their efforts with the local community. In Weimar, it was greeted at the gates of the City Palace, by the President of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar, who received it in a celebration of sixteen years of collaboration with European Heritage Volunteers, honouring a partnership that has brought young people from around the world into the parks and gardens of Classical Weimar. Finally, the bronze plaque travelled to the Moravian Church community of Herrnhut, recently inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

At each destination, the European Heritage / Europa Nostra Award 2025 bronze plaque became a guest of honour welcomed by communities, local authorities, artists, and heritage activists. It was celebrated at concerts, greeted in churches and castles, and held up proudly by the participants of the European Heritage Volunteers Programme from dozens of countries worldwide. It connected abbeys with castles, gardens with mining canals, open-air museums with historic cemeteries. The journey turned into a celebration of the diversity of Europe’s cultural heritage and the shared effort to preserve it.

The path of the bronze plaque mirrors the path of European Heritage Volunteers itself. It moves through historic places, connects different communities, and carries a message of collaboration, continuity, and pride. Each stop has been a reminder that heritage is not static, but alive when celebrated together, when skills are transmitted, and when communities open their traditions and stories to others.

The journey is far from over. In the weeks ahead, the bronze plaque will continue its travels, with planned visits to the Niederzwönitz Paper Mill in the Ore Mountains, which is currently under consideration for World Heritage status, to endangered vernacular ensembles around Ivanić Grad in Croatia, to the three-store adobe ensemble in the village of Mandritsa in Bulgaria, to the Bay of Kotor in Montenegro where it will be welcomed by local heritage activists in Gornji Stoliv, and finally to the 19th-century villa of a pioneer-entrepreneur in Meliana in Spain which is currently being restored and revitalised.