About Us

Who are we?

Heritage Europe was formed as “The European Association of Historic Towns and Regions” by the Council of Europe in October 1999 as part of the initiative “Europe – A Common Heritage”.
Heritage Europe now represents through its range of membership categories over 1200 historic and heritage towns, cities and regions in 32 European countries.
Heritage Europe’s principle objective is to promote the interests of historic towns and cities across Europe through:-

  • International co-operation between heritage organisations, and historic towns, cities and regions.
  • Sharing experience and good practice between historic towns, cities and regions.
  • Promoting vitality, viability and sustainable management of historic towns, cities and regions.

The European Association of Historic Towns and Regions Ltd (EAHTR) is a ‘Public Equivalent Body’, a ‘not for profit’ legal entity . Its company number is 4411400 registered under UK law. The name ‘Heritage Europe’ is used for the purposes of marketing and publicity as provided for under item 1.1 of the EAHTR Constitution agreed by its General Assembly in September 2004.

Click here for Constitution.

What does Heritage Europe do?

The structure of this web site reflects the main activities of Heritage Europe as a pan European umbrella network representing and promoting the interests of Europe’s historic cities, towns, villages and regions. These activities include:-

  • Keeping you up to date with current news and views especially at the European level
  • Helping make sure you don’t miss key conferences, meetings or events that may be of interest
  • Working in partnership with like-minded organisations to support European projects, develop European policy and provide expert advice
  • Identify and disseminate examples of good practice in the sustainable management of cultural heritage

The Home page provides more information on each of these under “News and Views”, “Live Projects”, “Working Together” and “Good Practice”.