LITHUANIAN ORDER OF MERIT FOR PROF. HERB STOVEL

On 16th of February, 2006 a famous international expert of integrated urban conservation professor Herb Stovel has received the Lithuanian Order of Merit. On this occasion Vilnius City Mayor Arturas Zuokas gave the reception in the Tawn Hall (photos are attached).

The Lithuanian State Commission of Cultural Heritage, the Municipality of the City of Vilnius, Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency and the Department of Cultural Heritage at the Ministry of Culture of Lithuania are very much obliged to prof. Herb Stovel for his activities in the framework of Integrated Territorial Urban Conservation (ITUC) programme in Lithuania and in the initiation of the 2000 Riga Charter on the Authenticity and Historical Reconstruction in Relationship to Cultural Heritage.

The ITUC programme was created by ICCROM in a meeting of experts organised in Rome in 1995 in order to provide a focus for strengthening conditions world round for urban and territorial conservation. One of the regions in which ITUC activity has been taking place is North Eastern Europe, beginning with the first ITUC training course in Nida, Lithuania in the fall of 1997. The training courses organised in Nida, Druskininkai, and Kaunas (Lithuanian towns) from 1997 through 1999 were very much appreciated by regional professionals.

The regional conference on "Authenticity and Historic Reconstruction in Relationship with Cultural Heritage", organised by ICCROM in collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO and the Latvian State Inspection for Heritage Protection, was held in Riga, Latvia, October 23-24, 2000. The Riga Charter on Reconstruction, adopted during the conference, was the first agreement among the experts of the region in the sphere of cultural heritage conservation.

Head and leader of all those activities was prof. Herb Stovel. He started activities for the merit of Lithuanian conservation since 1995, when prof. Stovel first came to Vilnius in the framework of Canadian Baltic Municipal Co-operation Programme. Together with Canadian Urban Institute (in 1997) and Vilnius Old Town Renewal Agency (1998 and 1999) he organised three ITUC training programmes in Lithuania. In 1998 H.Stovel helped to organise an International Seminar "Construction in Historical Environment" in Vilnius. In 1999 Herb Stovel together with Lithuanian conservation authorities made a visit to Belarus to discuss the implementation and co-ordination of ITUC programme in Belarus.

On 10-13 of February 2006, prof. Herb Stovel came as a consultant to participate in the International Workshop on the Preparation of the Study of Experience of Vilnius Old Town Preservation and Revitalisation 1995 - 2005.