European Cemeteries Route received the Best Practice Award 2024

The award-winning initiative was Week of Discovering European Cemeteries: Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change.

Best Practice Award 2024

At the 13th Annual Advisory Forum of the Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe, held in Budapest, Hungary, from 25 to 27 September 2024, six Cultural Routes received the "Best Practice Award" for promoting cultural heritage.

Among them, the European Cemeteries Route was recognized for its focus on Cultural Tourism and Sustainable Development. The award-winning initiative, titled "Week of Discovering European Cemeteries: Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change," encouraged ASCE and European Cemeteries Route members to organize over 30 events in 22 cemeteries across seven European countries. These events emphasized the role of cemeteries as green spaces and promoted sustainable practices. Activities included guided tours, exhibitions, and open calls for sustainable improvements.

For more information about the award ceremony and the other winners, please visit this LINK.

European Cemeteries for Sustainable Europe

The theme for the 2024 Week of Discovering European Cemeteries, "Environmental Sustainability and Climate Change," was developed as part of the ASCE initiative "Cemeteries for Sustainable Europe," launched in 2024 to promote the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 

Details of the initiative and the WDEC 2024 examples of good practice can be found HERE.

King’s Award to Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery

We are proud to announce that our member, Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery, has been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

It was announced on the occasion of His Majesty the King’s 75th birthday that The Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery have been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) – the highest recognition granted to volunteer groups across the United Kingdom, equivalent to an MBE.

Friends of Lister Lane Cemetery are very proud to receive this accolade and hope it will help them promote their wonderful cemetery and its occupants.

The award will be later presented by the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire.

*Photo source: https://twitter.com/ListerLaneCem.

King’s Award to Friends of Flaybrick

We are proud to announce that our member, Friends of Flaybrick, has been awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service.

About the award

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) is the highest award given to volunteer groups across the United Kingdom. The award recognizes outstanding work done by volunteer groups in their communities and it is the equivalent to an MBE.

Further information about the award can be found at https://kavs.dcms.gov.uk.

Friends of Flaybrick

The Friends of Flaybrick charity was established in 1993 by John Moffat, who today works as secretary of the group, with the intent of bringing Flaybrick back into the community. The members and volunteers have worked hard since then to achieve that aim, despite occasional setbacks, which only make them more determined to succeed.

Their Chair, Rob Dolphin, said "We are such a wonderful hard working group with a range of skills and abilities which suit the tasks we undertake and it is my great joy and honour to accept the award on behalf of our charity. This gives true recognition to all members and volunteers, both past and present."

Upon receiving the award, they would like to express their thanks to Lord Field of Birkenhead who kindly sponsored the award bid, and also Councillor George Davies, former Mayor of Wirral and Elizabeth Davey, the prominent local historian, for their wonderful letters of endorsement. The group would also like to take the opportunity to express their thanks to the people of Wirral and beyond who support them in all weathers and attend their guided walks, Services of Remembrance and open days in great numbers.

*Photo source: https://www.facebook.com/FlaybrickFriends/.

The Ballena Cemetery awarded in the national contest

The Municipal Cemetery of Castro-Urdiales (the Ballena Cemetery) has been awarded at a national level for best public activities carried out in the cemetery.

The Municipal Cemetery of Castro-Urdiales in Spain (the Ballena Cemetery) has been awarded at a national level in the VII. Historic Cemeteries contest, organized by the magazine Adiós Cultural, in the category for best public activities carried out in the cemetery.

Among the numerous cultural performances at the cemetery (guided visits, dramatized visits, children's cultural notebook, music, and poetry recitals, etc.) the accessible audio-visual guides as well as guides in the sign language that have been designed to visit the Ballena Cemetery stand out. The latter were prepared within the Universal Accessible Tourism project that is being carried out by the Department of Tourism and Heritage. 

Through all these activities and with help of new technologies the Ballena Cemetery managed to spread its architectural and artistic qualities among all visitors and eliminate the communication barriers that a few years ago were more difficult to overcome.

You can read more about the award in the original newspaper article (in Spanish) accessible HERE.

*Photo source: www.castro-urdiales.net

Best practices award 2022

European Cemeteries Route received the Cultural Routes Best Practices Award by the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA).

About the Cultural Routes Best Practices Award

The call for the “Cultural Routes Best Practices Award” was launched in 2022 by the Secretariat of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA) in order to give recognition to best practices implemented by the certified Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe.

Award for Schools on cemeteries project

European Cemeteries Route received this exceptional award for the "Schools on cemeteries project", which has been implemented and developed for many years by European Cemetery Route members across Europe.

The ASCE president, Mrs Lidija Pliberšek, received the award certificate at the 11th Cultural Routes Annual Advisory Forum, that took place from 5th to 7th October 2022 in Chania, Greece.

The award is an important acknowledgement of the importance of the project. Thus, it will be further promoted and developed by the route management.

You can find more infromation about the project and the award itself HERE.

*On the photo from left to right: Mr. Stefano Dominioni (Executive Secretary of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe and Director of European Institute of Cultural Routes), Mrs. Lidija Pliberšek (ASCE president and director of Pogrebno podjetje Maribor) and Mr. Julien Vuilleumier (Chair, Governing Board of the Enlarged Partial Agreement on Cultural Routes of the Council of Europe (EPA)).

The Church Monuments Essay Prize

The Council of the Church Monuments Society offers a biennial prize of £500 called the Church Monuments Essay Prize, to be awarded with a certificate for the best essay submitted in the relevant year along with publication of the winning essay in the peer-reviewed international annual CMS journal Church Monuments.

Award for Symbols project artists

Two art students, Tamara Hršak and Laura Koder, received prestigious award called Perlach’s recognition for their participation within project Symbols.

UNWTO ULYSSES AWARD to the European Cemeteries Route

On June 2, 2011, Dr. Brent Ritchie handed the UNWTO Ulysses Award to ASCE’s Vice-President, Ms.Lidija Pliberšek, in recognition of its project ‘European Cemeteries Route’. The UNWTO Ulysses Awards are granted to projects undertaken by public institutions in tourism (governmental, public-private partnerships), tourism enterprises and non-profit institutions (NGOs, civil society, etc.), which merit distinction for their innovative contributions to tourism policy, governance, and other areas of tourism, such as the environment, cooperation for development, new technologies, social corporate,...

The speech of Mrs. Lidija Plibersek can be seen at the following video: