Promoting Peace heritage at the European level

Telling the Architects of Peace stories

In the context of the European Year of Cultural Heritage and the WW1 Armistice (1918-2018) centenary, the Mundaneum (Belgium) and the Peace Palace (Netherlands) are celebrating together “The Architects of Peace”.

Peace is not a natural state. Peace is about a long and laborious construction process. All around Europe, through the years, different heritage sites tell the story of men and women who’ve worked towards designing peace and hence, contributing to what makes Europe today. A place with no war for the last seven decades and awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

The Architects of peace also laid the foundation stones for our organizations, the Mundaneum and the Peace Palace, both “laboratories for peace”. The first, the Peace Palace in The Hague, striving for peace through international law. The second, the Mundaneum in Mons, through culture and knowledge. Both are European Heritage Label sites: visitors can find in both sites elements of what makes the European DNA (culture, values, identity).

The Mundaneum and the Peace Palace are getting prepared to share the stories of  these “Architects of Peace” and highlight how they have influenced our organizations today. From now on, the Peace Palace and the Mundaneum are writing a new page of their common history and join their efforts together to promote Peace heritage at a European level!
Learn further about the Peace Palace, the Mundaneum and the Architects of Peace!

Bridging The Hague and Mons: A EHL joint project

As it used to be the case for the war memorials between 2014 and 2018, the post 2018 period will be key for the Peace heritage sites. Our responsibility today is to celebrate the important milestones in European History towards the construction of peace. Not only to commemorate but further than this. In a societal challenging context, it’s our responsibility to spread Peace history in order to feed peace education, to promote European citizenship and the integration of communities. This is why we chose to launch “the Architects of Peace” in the framework of the European year of cultural heritage.

A cycle of activities will be proposed under the umbrella “The Architects of Peace”: From an exhibition at the Mundaneum in Mons to an online digital exhibitions series, from a crowdsourcing and spreading Peace heritage program to a social media #campaign. Audience development is key regarding the objectives of our project. Our initiative is supported by the Carnegie Foundation, the Foundation Henri La Fontaine, the Bar of Mons and the Foundation Mons 2025 (European capital of culture in 2015).

In the future, ‘The Architects of Peace” may become a label or a call to encourage other institutions to share their stories of influential pacifists of another era and other nationalities on the basis of materials from their heritage collections with matching stories. A peace heritage crowdsourcing ‘The Architects of Peace” is a first step towards a more ambitious program of sharing the European history of peace to a broader audience.

Follow #architectsofpeace!