[This event is organised by Future for Religious Heritage. The following text is the original description provided by the organisers. Please note that while we strive to ensure the accuracy of the information provided, the European Heritage Hub does not guarantee the accuracy or endorse the content of this event]

The 2024 FRH Conference, “Religious Heritage in Transition: Challenges and Solutions” will take place on 23-24 September in Krakow, Poland, with a day of study visits on 22 September.

This edition will look into the ongoing environmental, technological and societal changes in Europe and the world and the challenges they pose to the management and safeguarding of Europe’s religious heritage. We will study the interconnections among these issues and present current solutions to navigate this complex scenario. To delve deeper into this overarching theme, the conference is divided into four sub-themes:

• Resilient Heritage: climate change, armed conflicts, migration, secularisation and demographic changes are current challenges that can lead to the deterioration, abandonment or even loss of religious heritage. This sub-theme will explore current efforts to address these urgent threats.
• Sustainable Solutions: this sub-theme will address the long-term sustainability of religious buildings, looking at trends in adaptive reuse, protection of heritage crafts linked to built religious heritage and ecological sustainability in a context where more and more religious buildings are being closed, neglected or underused every year.
• Digital Futures: the digital transition has brought with it a wealth of new possibilities for the study, management, protection and promotion of religious heritage, but it has also raised many questions about the long-term impact of these technologies on the sector, especially on traditional crafts.
• Quality of Life: religious heritage is often associated with various social, cultural and spiritual values, which are closely related to mental health and emotional well-being. This sub-theme will explore how sacred places positively influence people’s health, especially cultural tourism, pilgrimage routes and the protection of biodiversity and green spaces.

Our venue will be the Galicia Jewish Museum, an active institution in the preservation and promotion of Jewish culture in Poland with two permanent exhibitions dedicated to past and contemporary Jewish culture and life in the historic region of Galicia.

The conference programme is available here.

The conference speakers can be found here.

Registration must be done through the Eventbrite page of the event.

More information about the conference can be found on the FRH website.