HIstorical CAstle ParkS
Central Europe’s cultural heritage is rich and diverse, but under pressure due to lack of capacity (common policies, know-how, resources). In some parts situation is rapidly deteriorating. In the past, many castle buildings were upgraded, decorated with parks, which were reflections of the socio - cultural values of the time. Their purpose was to demonstrate the political and economic power of the owner and on the other hand owner wanted to spend quality time in aesthetic landscape. Nowadays many of those parks don’t exist anymore, especially in small towns. The main reason is lack of financial resources for the protection of cultural and historical buildings and their contents. Surrounding of the buildings, due to lack of knowledge from the past and financial resources, is therefore mostly arranged according to the needs of present days. We will strengthen capacities of public and private sector for use of cultural heritage and resources achieved through transnational cooperation, raise awareness amongst schools and citizens about our historical past and improve benefits for the citizens and the public administrations. Main outputs will be: Concept of TS, TS on evaluation of cultural heritage and potentials of historical parks, 8 local action plans, decision support tool  with guidelines for self-evaluation for local/regional development, educational outdoor trail tool and transnational handbook on landscape accessible for all, 8 local revitalisation concepts and 7 revitalised historical gardens and one 3D pilot visualisation. Due to the big varieties of typologies and the fragmentation in managing historical gardens at CE level, it would not be possible to tackle all these challenges in a single area. The diversity of the partners’ experience provides a transnational added value supporting a wide diffusion of the project results in many other CE regions.