Conserving cultural heritage for future generations

The 18^th of April is International Day for Monuments and Sites (IDMS), and the aim is to bring global attention to the need to conserve monuments and sites as our cultural heritage.

It is also a day when many sites around the world open their doors for free, encouraging people of all walks of life to walk through the doors and enjoy the experience.

“Every year the IDMS has a theme and in 2018 it is Heritage for Generations. This is a fantastic opportunity to emphasize the importance of intergenerational exchanges when it comes to safeguarding and celebrating our heritage,” says Theresa Szejwallo, Managing Director for Trafalgar.

Marta Cucchia at a loom. Picture: Supplied

For Trafalgar this is a particularly important initiative. Through their TreadRight Foundation, which aims to ensure that the environment and communities they visit remain vibrant for generations to come, Trafalgar supports a range of museums, arts and culture projects and local artisans.

In Canada they partner with the Manitobah Mukluks Storyboot Project to teach the heritage art of mukluk-making to local indigenous students.

The project looks to revive the traditional arts by creating partnerships with elders and artisans who fashion mukluks. It also allows Storyboot artisans from across Canada to display and sell these mukluks at the Bata Shoe Museum.

In Perugia, Italy, Trafalgar’s guests will find Marta Cucchia in action at her workshop, the Laboratiorio Guiditta Brozetti , which was established in 1921.

Marta is the only person in the world still using jacquered wooden looms to weave Umbrian, Medieval and Renaissance designs from wool and silk.

Using the funds provided by the TreadRight Heritage Initiative grants programme, Laboratorio Giuditta Brozzetti has established educational tools for spreading the tradition of weaving, and also built e-commerce capabilities enabling increased online sales, providing a stable source of income for the community-based cooperative.

The Schloss Leopoldskron will look very familiar to many film enthusiasts as it was the location of several romantic scenes from The Sound of Music. But this 18^th century former family estate of the Prince Archbishop of Salzburg is also a member of the Historic Hotels of Europe.

Trafalgar’s guests stay at this living museum and through Trafalgar’s support this unique heritage property can carry out continuous care, periodic restoration and training of its staff in effective conservation methods.

“We believe that by travelling with care, supporting local artisans and safeguarding our heritage we can ensure that future travellers will enjoy the world as much as we do right now,” ends Theresa.

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