Wooden Churches - the hidden giants of common tourism destination "Carpathians"

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An increasing number of people are visiting churches & other religious heritage sites – awareness of their significance as attractions is growing. And the wooden sacral architecture has become the determining feature of the cultural originality of the Carpathians presenting the hidden giants of the region's tourism destinations. Besides being foremost the places of worship wooden churches are tangible expressions of the Carpathian culture evolution, local heritage, family history & tales of human events & achievements, embellished with architecture, art & craftsmanship. But these buildings are a fragile resource, non-commercial & almost entirely dependent upon voluntary effort. If they are not supported & promoted to help them open up, welcome visitors & tell their stories, a vital part of the Carpathian culture & history could be irretrievably lost. However, to utilize their great potential we still need to solve two major problems: 1) bad physical conditions & destruction of wooden churches; &, 2) unsatisfactory promotion of wooden sacral architecture objects. Towards this end, the project sets its overall objective to preserve & promote wooden sacral architecture of the Carpathians as the key objects of cultural/historical heritage & hidden giants for tourism development. By achieving its objective the project will contribute to development of church tourism in the border region, improving its image, attractiveness of small communities. In the longterm, it will contribute to social & economic development of the borderland based on tourism industry, integration of the border communities into national, cross-border & international tourism routes. Outputs to achieve this: awareness raised of wooden church maintainers, CBC established to utilize wooden churches for tourism development, information base & tools developed for promotion of wooden sacral architecture, joint promotion events held.

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