Coordinator: Segretariato Regionale del Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali per le Marche (IT)
Partners: Univerza v Ljubljani (SI), Technologiko Panepistimio Kyprou (CY), Universidade do Minho (PT), Universita degli Studi di Ferrara (IT)

Project amount: 337.000 EUR (59,35 %)
EU support: 200.000 EUR

Cultural heritage damaging due to natural disasters represents a loss of artistic and historical materials and in the same time is an immaterial loss of memory and people identity. One of the most impacting events both on communities and on cultural heritage was the 2016/2017 Central-Italy earthquake. In Marche Region, the most affected territory, 1664 historical listed churches and 1223 listed buildings (castles, palaces, archaeological areas, etc) were damaged or destroyed. From those listed buildings more than 13000 movable artworks with different levels of damage were removed and stored in temporary conservation centres. In terms of landscape impact, 285 historical villages were damaged and evacuated. The OPHERA project concept is based on the awareness that the restoration of this cultural heritage is a long-term process that will last more than 30 years, and will be therefore dedicated to next generations. The project idea is therefore to make accessible part of the damaged cultural heritage and cultural-artistic contents associated to the restoration activity throughout the restoration process by mean of traditional and advanced interactive methods and tools.

OPHERA project aims to reveal the restoration process cultural values, which are characterized by a rich pattern of skills and creative steps usually shared among restoration professionals (architects, artwork restorers, researchers, art managers, historians,etc) including the most advanced knowledge about preventive methods for heritage conservation in order to increase the people culture of prevention. The project, through the training of a European team of cultural operators and artists and the organization of two Open-days in the restoration sites, aims to foster a cultural exchange between restoration professionals and a wider audience represented by citizens, visitors, local administrators, students, cultural association in order to transform the restoration process in a cultural event.