Cultural heritage in mountain regions

Mountains cover nearly 30% of the EU territory. Together with rural and remote areas they are home to 57% of the population and account for 46% of the gross added value produced in the EU. Besides hosting an invaluable and very fragile natural heritage they also possess an extremely rich cultural heritage, intrinsically linked to our common European history. Their uniqueness comes however with multiple challenges, determined inter alia by depopulation and the systemic lack of services: finding ways to valorise the cultural heritage can be a powerful antidote to address them.

The present policy brief, therefore, provides an outlook on EU initiatives that local and regional authorities should refer to for boosting sustainable development in mountain areas through the valorisation of the cultural heritage. It also presents a selection of Interreg Europe good practices and EU-funded projects of particular interest and featured by a high degree of replicability and adaptability to mountain regions.