Zprávy památkové péče 2014, 74(3):184-192

Protection of historic towns and villages as a continuous current international topic of heritage care in the context of the Czech lands

Věra Kučová

Theoretically, the richly-based protection of historic towns and villages in the Czech lands is an extraordinary asset of Czech heritage preservation in the European context. It has also been supported by extensive thematically-oriented literature that prepared an understanding in society for the selection of settlements for legal protection. Support for the protection of valuable towns and villages can be demonstrated as early as in the works of Georg Dehio and K. F. Schinkel. An important work in this context is also the Catechism of heritage care of Max Dvořák. It was thus that the Venice Charter of ICOMOS of 1964, the 50th anniversary of which is reminded in the article, built on many tested ideas. The article also advocates the legal bases of protection of heritage areas in the Czech lands to parallel movements in Germany and Great Britain. In addition to the genesis of the methodological principles in ICOMOS documents, it highlights relevant passages in the Athens and New Athens Charter which receive less attention. It recalls the many years of efforts to define the relationship of new buildings to the historic environment at home and abroad. In conclusion, it characterizes the development of international doctrinal texts at the UNESCO level, in particular its Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape from 2011.

Keywords: urban conservation, international documents, historic towns, historic villages, historic urban landscape

Published: September 1, 2014  Show citation