CCCH: Climate Change and Cultural Heritage

Aims

Climate change will affect all aspects of life, including our cultural heritage. Already today, the changing climatic conditions have led to an impairment of art and cultural assets, e. g. due to dry summers from 2018 to 2020.

Increased international research is needed to record and assess the effects of climate on (sensitive) cultural property and to develop solution strategies based on this. For the project CCCH: Climate Change and Cultural Heritage, two recognized research institutions from Argentina (UNSAM) and Germany (KDWT) have therefore joined forces. The focus of the activities in Bamberg is on the preservation of historical monuments, while in Buenos Aires it is primarily on museum cultural heritage. Both locations have a strongly material-technical treatment of the questions of cultural heritage preservation in common. At both locations, natural science laboratories deal with the microanalysis of cultural heritage samples as well as with different, complementary analytical methods.

Content

Thanks to the support of CONICET/BAYLAT a reciprocal visit of scientists could be initiated in 2021 and 2022. 

In 2021, Prof. Dr. Fernando Marte and Dr. Marcos Tascon, both from the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) in Buenos Aires, were guests at the KDWT for about two weeks. Together they visited different cultural institutions in Germany and discussed and analyzed the effects of climate change on site. Locations included the Residenz in Munich, the Fraunhofer Center for Energy Efficient Restoration of Old Buildings and Conservation of Historical Monuments Benediktbeuern, the glass workshop of the Erfurt Cathedral, the gardens of Sanssouci Palace and the baroque palace the Moritzburg.

In 2022, Dr. Kristina Holl and Prof. Dr. Paul Bellendorf visited the colleagues of UNSAM in Buenos Aires. Among others, they visited the Recoleta Cemetery, the Botanical Garden, the MALBA Museum and the Sivori Museum in Buenos Aires. In addition, visits to Córdoba, Alta Gracia and Jesus Maria were on the agenda.

As a result of the mutual visits, the partner institutes have been able to get to know each other much better, while at the same time understanding has grown around national concerns for the preservation of cultural heritage. On this basis, different possible ideas for joint follow-up projects were discussed.

Pictures

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