Since 1978 (the historic inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List), Krakow has been an active member of more than a dozen international organisations involved with the protection and management of heritage.

OWHC currently has nearly 300 members. The president of the Organization of World Heritage Cities for 2022-2024 is Bruno Marchand, mayor of Québec (Canada). The OWHC General Secretariat is also located there. In addition, there are eight Regional Secretariats, assigned to specific geographic areas. The current headquarters of the Secretariat of the Central and Eastern Europe Region, which includes Krakow, is in Warsaw.
The goals of the organization are to ensure the exchange of experience among member cities in the field of revitalization of historic cities, as well as to participate in projects and programs related to the management of historic cities and to develop new solutions for the protection and promotion of cultural heritage.

Krakow has been a member of OWHC since 1995. From 2019 to 2022, the president of OWHC was Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski. In 2022, during the organization’s convention in Québec, the authorities of Krakow were elected to the Board of Directors of OHWC for 2022-2024, along with the mayors of cities such as Bruges, Évora, Luxembourg and Vienna.

Every two years, the OWHC awards the Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize for Cultural Heritage. The award is given to one member city for a revitalization project completed in recent years.

Every year on September 8, OWHC also organizes the World Heritage Cities Solidarity Day, dedicated to presenting conservation achievements and popularizing the idea of historic preservation. In 2020 alone, the celebration of World Heritage Cities Solidarity Day in Krakow included the opening of the renovated Holy Spirit Square and the commissioning of the bell on the City Hall Tower. The organization also awards grants to solve problems in urban heritage management.
OWHC conventions are held every two years in various member cities. Their program regularly includes workshops for mayors, thematic workshops, plenary sessions, meetings of the OWHC General Assembly, and elections of the host city of the next congress and members of the Board of Directors. Krakow hosted the OWHC congress in 2019.

Today, Europa Nostra brings together more than 250 member organisations from 40 countries and is recognised as the complementary voice of European civil society to UNESCO for the cultural heritage of the continent. Headquartered in The Hague, the organisation works closely with European Union institutions, lobbying for the creation of funding tools for Europe’s most precious cultural heritage sites.

Europa Nostra conducts high-profile media campaigns such as the 7 Most Endangered Monuments Programme, awards prestigious European Heritage Awards, and maintains close relations with European Union institutions, seeking attention and resources for specific conservation and preservation activities.

Krakow in Europa Nostra

Krakow has been an active member of the federation for many years. This was particularly reflected in the decision to establish the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków, the organisation’s regional organisational and advisory centre for Central Europe. The Hub was established in 2022 as a result of an agreement signed by Krakow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski and Europa Nostra’s Executive President, Professor Hermann Parzinger.

It is the first of several regional Europa Nostra centres on our continent. The decision to set up the centre was not only an expression of international recognition of the heritage of Krakow, one of the first cities inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List, but also of the activity of the conservation community, museums and local NGOs dealing with tangible and intangible heritage.
The winner of the competition announced by the city to run the Hub from 2022 to 2025 was the Society of Lovers of Krakow Monuments and History – one of the oldest Polish NGOs, with a metric dating back to 1897. The Hub is based in a historic building at 12 Św. Jana Street, which is also the Society’s headquarters.

The objectives of the Europa Nostra Heritage Hub in Kraków are to develop a network of non-governmental partners in the Central European region, to identify cases of heritage at risk and lobby for its protection in the European forum, and to promote and implement modern practices in cultural heritage management in the context of EU climate policy objectives.

The League brings together historic cities from all over the world, currently 129 cities from 65 countries and regions (as of November 2022). Its headquarters are located in Kyoto.

According to the statutes of the LHC, the aim of this organisation is to ensure peace for future generations, to deepen understanding between nations through the exchange of knowledge and experience, and to promote the development of historic cities. The LHC proposes various initiatives and implements international projects, promoting cross-border and constructive dialogue between historic cities.

The Mayor of Krakow is among the members of the LHC Board of Directors for the period 2022-2026.

LHC conferences are held every two years in different cities of the network. The meeting in Krakow took place in 1998 under the theme ‘Heritage and Development of Historic Cities’.

The latest, the 18th World League Conference, took place in November 2022 in the Korean city of Andong. At its conclusion, participants adopted a document entitled Declaration of Peace and Solidarity, which is the current message that the League of Historic Cities sends to the world as an appeal for peace and cooperation as a tool for conflict resolution.

The activities of ICOMOS are directed towards the widespread promotion of modern theories, methodologies and scientific technologies in the conservation of the architectural and archaeological heritage of mankind. The organisation has national committees in each country as well as specialised committees (e.g. the Committee on Underwater Cultural Heritage or the Committee on Archaeological Heritage Management).

ICOMOS is the main advisor to UNESCO on inscribing more sites on the World Heritage List. In Poland there is a Polish National Committee of the ICOMOS Council for the Protection of Monuments.

Krakow has been a member of the ICOMOS National Committee of the Council for the Protection of Historical Monuments since 1995. Kraków’s accession to the Committee was intended, among other things, to intensify the participation of international specialists affiliated to ICOMOS in conservation work in Kraków (including the conservation of the stained glass windows in St. Mary’s Church), as well as to open a new platform for the exchange of information on correct conservation principles and techniques.

The former union of Hanseatic cities, the Hanseatic League, was active from the 13th to the 16th century and united around 200 European cities. It was not only a trade organisation – the League promoted the ideas of municipal self-government, humanism, social solidarity and mutual assistance.

Not everyone knows that, at its height, Krakow was a Hanseatic city. The city near Wawel was the southernmost outpost of this famous medieval organisation, associated primarily with the North and Baltic Sea region. The Hanseatic League had a significant impact on strengthening democratic structures in Polish society, enabling it to benefit from the experience of its partners – Western European cities.

The aim of the reconstituted union is to promote the heritage of the Hanseatic cities, show their cultural connections, cooperate and exchange experiences in the fields of tourism, culture, ecology, education and economy. Within the framework of the New Hanse, the “Young Hanse” project, in which secondary school pupils and students participate, is very active.

Kraków joined the New Hanseatic League in 2001. The association currently has 210 cities from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Latvia, Russia, Belarus, France, the United Kingdom, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and, above all, Germany (127) and is one of the largest international organisations of cities in the world. As in the Middle Ages, the organisation is headed by the Lord Mayor of Lübeck. Of the Polish cities of the New Hanseatic League, Gdansk plays a particularly active role alongside Krakow, just as it did during the golden age of the union.

In medieval times representatives of the Hanseatic cities met annually at conventions. The New Hanseatic League has returned to this tradition. The annual meetings during the New Hanseatic Days, organised by one of the member cities, have the character of a medieval fair, during which the cities have the opportunity to present themselves at promotional stands and through participation in a cultural programme (concerts, exhibitions, etc.). The convention is also accompanied by various conferences and thematic seminars, mainly on economic and environmental issues. In 1997, the New Hanse Days were hosted by Gdansk.

It is a pioneering endeavour that has emerged from global changes in the perception of heritage. The programme promotes cities through the lens of their cultural identity. The focus is therefore not so much on monuments, but on the artistic traditions and intangible heritage specific to particular cities.

The UNESCO Creative Cities titles are awarded in seven areas: literature, music, film, arts and crafts and folk art, design, gastronomy and visual arts.

The programme aims to raise public awareness of the importance of culture and its pro-development potential, foster the emergence of innovative practices, and increase access to and participation in culture, especially for marginalised groups.

The network currently brings together nearly 300 cities worldwi

Krakow – UNESCO City of Literature

In 2013, Krakow joined the Creative Cities Network as the first non-English-speaking and seventh UNESCO City of Literature in the world. The choice of literature as a field of creativity particularly associated with Krakow was quite obvious.

The city of Szymborska, Miłosz and Lem has centuries-old traditions connected with literature and books. It was here that the first printed works were created on Polish soil, here that the university shaped the cultural elite of Central Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, and here that successive trends and tendencies in literature left their mark – from the artistic ferment of Young Poland, through the disruptive concepts of the Krakow Avant-garde, to the post-war intellectual melting pot shaped by the circles of Tygodnik Powszechny, Znak and Przekrój.

Today Krakow is the country’s leading publishing centre, the venue of Poland’s largest book fair and internationally recognised festivals, a city with a lively and active literary scene.

KMLU programme

As a result of the title, a comprehensive municipal programme for the promotion of readership, support for creative circles and the local book market was established under the name Kraków Miasto Literatury UNESCO (KMLU). The country’s largest network of municipal libraries (56 branches) is being continuously modernised, literary festivals are being developed, and the 16th-century Potocki Palace on the Main Market Square hosts literary events of various types throughout the year.

A particular achievement of the programme is the creation of a system of support for the local book market – small bookshops, publishers publishing books connected with Krakow (through their subject or through the person of their authors), translators or, last but not least, budding authors for whom a year-long programme of creative writing courses is run.
A strategic project of the KMLU programme is Planet Lem. Literature and Language Centre – the future literary centre of Krakow, with a permanent multimedia exhibition devoted to the works of Stanisław Lem.

The framework of the Krakow City of Literature UNESCO programme is set out in a 2016 resolution of the Krakow City Council [link: https://www.bip.krakow.pl/?dok_id=167&sub_dok_id=167&sub=uchwala&query=id%3D21281%26typ%3Du].
The organiser of the KMLU programme is the City of Kraków and its executor is the KBF.
Other Polish UNESCO Creative Cities
Apart from Krakow, four cities in Poland belong to the network: in 2015 Katowice received the title in the field of music, and in 2017, Łódź – in the field of film. In 2019, Wrocław – in the field of literature and in 2021, Gdynia – in the field of film.
More about the network: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/home
It is a pioneering endeavour that has emerged from global changes in the perception of heritage. The programme promotes cities through the lens of their cultural identity. The focus is therefore not so much on monuments, but on the artistic traditions and intangible heritage specific to particular cities.
The UNESCO Creative Cities titles are awarded in seven areas: literature, music, film, arts and crafts and folk art, design, gastronomy and visual arts.
The programme aims to raise public awareness of the importance of culture and its pro-development potential, foster the emergence of innovative practices, and increase access to and participation in culture, especially for marginalised groups.
The network currently brings together nearly 300 cities worldwide.
Krakow – UNESCO City of Literature
In 2013, Krakow joined the Creative Cities Network as the first non-English-speaking and seventh UNESCO City of Literature in the world. The choice of literature as a field of creativity particularly associated with Krakow was quite obvious.
The city of Szymborska, Miłosz and Lem has centuries-old traditions connected with literature and books. It was here that the first printed works were created on Polish soil, here that the university shaped the cultural elite of Central Europe from the Middle Ages onwards, and here that successive trends and tendencies in literature left their mark – from the artistic ferment of Young Poland, through the disruptive concepts of the Krakow Avant-garde, to the post-war intellectual melting pot shaped by the circles of Tygodnik Powszechny, Znak and Przekrój.
Today Krakow is the country’s leading publishing centre, the venue of Poland’s largest book fair and internationally recognised festivals, a city with a lively and active literary scene.
KMLU programme
As a result of the title, a comprehensive municipal programme for the promotion of readership, support for creative circles and the local book market was established under the name Kraków Miasto Literatury UNESCO (KMLU). The country’s largest network of municipal libraries (56 branches) is being continuously modernised, literary festivals are being developed, and the 16th-century Potocki Palace on the Main Market Square hosts literary events of various types throughout the year.
A particular achievement of the programme is the creation of a system of support for the local book market – small bookshops, publishers publishing books connected with Krakow (through their subject or through the person of their authors), translators or, last but not least, budding authors for whom a year-long programme of creative writing courses is run.
A strategic project of the KMLU programme is Planet Lem. Literature and Language Centre – the future literary centre of Krakow, with a permanent multimedia exhibition devoted to the works of Stanisław Lem.
The framework of the Krakow City of Literature UNESCO programme is set out in a 2016 resolution of the Krakow City Council [link: https://www.bip.krakow.pl/?dok_id=167&sub_dok_id=167&sub=uchwala&query=id%3D21281%26typ%3Du].
The organiser of the KMLU programme is the City of Kraków and its executor is the KBF.
Other Polish UNESCO Creative Cities
Apart from Krakow, four cities in Poland belong to the network: in 2015 Katowice received the title in the field of music, and in 2017, Łódź – in the field of film. In 2019, Wrocław – in the field of literature and in 2021, Gdynia – in the field of film.
More about the network: https://en.unesco.org/creative-cities/home

The network brings together partners who are designing, planning and implementing climate strategies in their communities, and implementing innovative initiatives (an example is the new Cultural Resources Climate Change Task Force in California).

The Network also serves as a vehicle to support heritage sector engagement in other international climate platforms, such as the UNFCCC’s Marrakech Partnership for Global Climate Action.

By joining the Network, members declare their support of the vision for collaboration outlined in the Memorandum of Understanding and will act in accordance with the scope set out in the Terms of Reference.

The Network was established in 2019. Krakow was one of the 70 founding entities of the organisation.

For historic cities rich in heritage resources, this change represents both opportunities for development and threats to heritage resources.

Between 2018 and 2021, Krakow took part in an innovative project by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, the Politecnico di Milano and the Universities of Paphos and Hull entitled Heritage Opportunities/Threats Within Mega-Events in Europe (HOMEE).

The aim of the project, carried out in an international partnership, was to better understand the relationship between mega-events and heritage conservation policies and the impact of large events on heritage-rich cities.

Charter for mega-events in heritage cities

The Charter for mega-events in heritage cities was announced during a seminar within a  project that analysed the experiences of cities distinguished by their intensive festival life

The document provides principles and guidance to enable cities to take advantage of the range of opportunities generated by mega-events, as well as to minimise the risks associated with their organisation. The HOMEE Charter addresses a number of aspects of the mega-event phenomenon – ranging from new uses of historic spaces, countering overload of historic sites, to changes in the way heritage places are understood and perceived.

The document also identifies the key challenges that mega-events pose to local government, as well as to event organisers.

Link to the Charter for mega-events in heritage cities:

For historic cities rich in heritage resources, this change represents both opportunities for development and threats to heritage resources.

Between 2018 and 2021, Krakow took part in an innovative project by the International Cultural Centre in Krakow, the Politecnico di Milano and the Universities of Paphos and Hull entitled Heritage Opportunities/Threats Within Mega-Events in Europe (HOMEE).

The aim of the project, carried out in an international partnership, was to better understand the relationship between mega-events and heritage conservation policies and the impact of large events on heritage-rich cities.

Charter for mega-events in heritage cities

The Charter for mega-events in heritage cities was announced during a seminar within a  project that analysed the experiences of cities distinguished by their intensive festival life

The document provides principles and guidance to enable cities to take advantage of the range of opportunities generated by mega-events, as well as to minimise the risks associated with their organisation. The HOMEE Charter addresses a number of aspects of the mega-event phenomenon – ranging from new uses of historic spaces, countering overload of historic sites, to changes in the way heritage places are understood and perceived.

The document also identifies the key challenges that mega-events pose to local government, as well as to event organisers.

Link to the Charter for mega-events in heritage cities: