“CASTLES’ CONSORTIUM” – STUDY for Seminars and the founding, organizational and program DOCUMENTS of the Danube Castles Network consortium
One of the basic goals of the “Castles & Regions” project is to build a strong and lively co-operation network of organizations representing medieval and post-medieval castles in the V4 and Western Balkans countries, through which knowledge transfer, sharing of best practices and experiences, joint presence on the tourism market etc. could be implemented to the benefit of the participating institutions. This will greatly contribute to the successful renewal of the roles of castles on a regional and trans-national level. Therefore, as a project Deliverable, applicant and project partners will intensively work on the preparation and establishment of the Danube Castles Network consortium and a proposed Vistula Castles Network consortium. Four out of five partner castles are along the Danube River. During the project timespan the network consortium of castles will be formed with the participation of castles located along the Danube. In order to foster the organization of further networks involving castles of V4 and Western Balkans countries, beyond the representatives of castles located along the Danube, also the representatives of the Polish project partner (CMS, representing castles along the Vistula River) as well as one representative from Czechia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro will be invited to the statutory meeting of the Danube Castles Network (see Deliverable “Summary Events”). Based on its research, accumulated experiences and information (e.g. through the previous Crowns of Rivers project and Danube Pearls programme), AHSRD will prepare and introduce a STUDY on the renewable roles of medieval and post-medieval castles in relation with the diversification of tourism and regional development (within this latter, especially commercial promotion, marketing and education). Also, AHSRD prepares the CONCEPT of the Danube Castles Network. The Study and the Concept will be used as informative material at the Seminars (incl. in the “Castle for the Regions” events). Results of the Study, the Concept and the Mid-term cooperations (see Deliverable “Mid-term cooperations”) will already be utilized during the organization of the network(s) of castles. The network Concept will be discussed with the prospective network partners in the framework of on-site negotiations. Taking the above into account, AHSRD will carry out the finalization of the Concept of the Danube Castles Network and prepare the official documents necessary for the founding of the network(s), such as the final concept, statutes draft, organizational and operational rules, programme proposal (Danube Castles Network document package). AHSRD will submit the document package to the potential founding organizations on-line. Representatives of potential founding organizations will be invited to the Esztergom venue of the closing event (See Deliverable “Summary Events” where the statutory meeting of the Danube Castles Network trans-national consortium will take place (prepared and organized by AHSRD and HNM and implemented by AHSRD). After the founding of the network, AHSRD will submit the Study and the Danube Castles Network document package to additional prospective partners (all organizations involved with the upkeep and utilization of castles along the Danube River) and encourage them to join the network.
