UNESCO Young Professionals Forum in the Royal Łazienki

Tens of experts on heritage protection participated in workshops which took place on 28 June 2017 in the Royal Łazienki. The Youth Forum discussed how historical gardens are maintained, and talked about the conservation of exhibits from the Royal Sculpture Gallery in the Old Orangery. To commemorate the event, an oak was planted in the Romantic Garden.

The World Heritage Young Professionals Forum, which accompanies the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Kraków, was hosted in Warsaw until 28 June.

Its members visited the Royal Castle, the Warsaw Uprising Museum, the Museum of Warsaw, and the Royal Łazienki Museum. In those locations, in accord with this year’s theme of the Youth Forum – "Memory: Lost and Recovered Heritage", they discussed matters relating to the destruction of cities – mostly due to military conflicts, as well as difficulties connected with the reconstruction of destroyed historical exhibits. Poland – as the host of the Youth Forum and the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee – has shared its experience in these domains.

Workshops for the Forum members took place in the Royal Łazienki. Participants talked about the maintenance of historical gardens – with our Museum as an example – and conservation of historical exhibits – with the example of the Royal Sculpture Gallery in the Old Orangery – and they shared solutions applied in their respective countries.

The Young Professionals Forum and the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee were commemorated with the official planting of an oak tree in the north-eastern part of the Romantic Garden. The event was attended by: Professor Sławomir Ratajski, Secretary General of the Polish Committee for UNESCO, PhD. Eng. Arch. Małgorzata Rozbicka, Director of the National Heritage Board of Poland, Professor Zbigniew Wawer, Director of the Royal Łazienki Museum.

This year’s Young Professionals Forum was prepared by the Polish Committee for UNESCO and the International Cultural Centre, under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

The Forum’s participants included people aged between 22 and 32, selected through a contest, representing various domains of knowledge connected with the protection of cultural heritage. They come from 21 countries which form the World Heritage Committee (Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Philippines, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Cuba, Lebanon, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Tanzania, Tunisia, Vietnam, and the Republic of Zimbabwe), as well as Belarus, Czech Republic, Egypt, Russian Federation, India, Iraq, Lithuania, Mali, Germany, Slovakia, Syria, Turkey, Ukraine, and Hungary.