FONDAZIONE VILLA FABRIS

The European Centre for Heritage Crafts and Professions is the result of an initiative taken by the Council of Europe and is one of the concrete results of the European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975. It aims at the protection, promotion and enhancement of cultural heritage through the training of artisans; it is very active in the area within the eighteenth-century villa, surrounded by a large, green park. Training is oriented towards the knowledge of the internationally established concepts of conservation and their application in specific local situations. How to choose from the different techniques for integration and replacements, for treatment and any prosthesis and the use of appropriate materials is taught. Because of its openness and its special formula of teaching with simultaneous interpretation in four languages, the Centre is considered to be a leader in its field and the only truly international institute. It is also the only training centre that applies much of the teaching in a multidisciplinary form, alternating between hands-on learning in separate but contiguous labs with collective lectures in classrooms. In 2008, the Baroness Hooper and Christopher Greyson from the Council of Europe honoured the Centre with their visit and subsequently presented the Recommendation No. 1851 in which the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognizes the crucial role played by the Centre in the conservation of heritage: "Conservation of the cultural heritage depends on a wide variety of skills. These range from basic traditional and contemporary construction techniques to scientific analysis and project management [..] It calls on the Committee of Ministers to give Council of Europe recognition to the new European centre for heritage crafts and professions in Thiene (Italy). [1]"