EUROPEAN ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE YEAR 1975

When the European Architectural Heritage Year (EAHY) 1975 was launched in the Council of Europe in 1963 with the Memorandum Regional Planning and the Preservation and Development of Ancient Buildings and Historical and Artistic Sites by Austrian member Ludwig Weiss, a unique long-term and public campaign for the preservation of the historic built heritage ensued. In 1972, the Council of Europe proclaimed the EAHY in 1975. A Committee on Monuments and Sites was founded, whose members and correspondents were mainly recruited from members of ICOMOS, including Raymond Lemaire, then Secretary General and President in 1975. The second vice-president was Alfred A. Schmid, professor of art history at the University of Fribourg, who had taken over the presidency of the Federal Commission Monument Preservation in 1963. The inaugural congress of the EAHY in 1975 took place in Zurich in 1973. Schmid acted as general rapporteur at the closing congress of the EAHY in Amsterdam in 1975.

There, the representatives of ICOMOS Suisse made a sensational appearance around Sibylle Heusser’s Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites of national importance (ISOS). In the Federal Republic of Germany, the EAHY was opened on January 20, 1975 in the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. There was an exhibition on the European model cities of Alsfeld, Berlin, Rothenburg, Trier, Xanten and the German model cities of Bamberg, Lübeck and Regensburg. Its concept was developed by Michael Petzet, later President of ICOMOS Germany and ICOMOS International. The exhibition and the accompanying catalog were important communication formats to get the public interested in heritage conservation issues. In Switzerland, the exhibition Das Ortsbild – Denkmal und Lebensraum toured alongside many other activities and events. Ten films were made and teaching materials for schools and guidelines for monument preservation were published. Four municipalities carried out réalisations exemplaires of townscape preservation, twelve municipalities were honored by the Council of Europe for their achievements in the EAHY in 1975, and the Swiss Heritage Society began awarding the Wakker Prize for special achievements in townscape and settlement development as early as 1972. Hans Erni created the poster for the diverse mediation program of the Swiss contribution, which is tailored to different target groups. The working group aims to build on such achievements in a critical manner.