Representatives of the Ceramic Museum at the Sorbonne

Before a distinguished audience, they presented the tourist attractions of our city, as well as the collections and activities of the Ceramic Museum.

The symposium “Museums and Battlefields,” held on June 20, 2024, was attended by representatives of many outstanding European museums, including the Louvre in Paris, the Army Museum in the Paris Hôtel des Invalides (where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried), the residence of the French kings at Fontainebleau, the Sèvres Porcelain Museum, the Prado National Museum in Madrid, Palazzo Reale in Milan, and the Wellington Museum at the Waterloo battlefield.

The event, opened by FECN President Vincent Chauvet and FECN Bureau Director Eleonora Berti, consisted of a series of one-and-a-half-hour moderated discussion sessions. During them, the invited participants analyzed various issues concerning the dissemination of the history of the Napoleonic period and presented their experience in this field. Topics included changing the perception of the Napoleonic era from a national to a European context, as well as cooperation between museums, other cultural institutions and battlefields in promoting history. Representatives of the Ceramic Museum in Bolesławiec—Tadeusz Orawiec and Katarzyna Zarówny—were speakers in a session on disseminating history beyond museum walls and engaging local communities and tourists in related activities. They were joined in analyzing these issues by Elisabetta Carovani, director of the Museum of Historical Figures in Calenzano near Florence (Italy), and Ana Umbelino, representing the Torres Line historical route (Spain) and serving as executive vice-president of the European Federation of Napoleonic Cities. The moderator was Prof. Patrizia Battilani of the University of Bologna.

The session participants presented the tourism potential and activities of their cities and institutions and spoke about their experience in actively promoting history beyond museum spaces, as well as prospects for cooperation in this area with other centers in Europe. The presentation by the representatives of Bolesławiec attracted particular interest because they drew the audience’s attention to the exceptionally large number of international projects aimed at promoting local history and cultural heritage that had been carried out by our city. It also turned out that, in such distinguished company, Bolesławiec was the only center located on more than one European cultural route (in addition to “Destination Napoleon,” Bolesławiec is also part of the European Ceramic Route). This gave our delegates an opportunity to provide a broader overview of our city’s international cooperation in various thematic areas. The presentation by our representatives introduced the concluding session, during which representatives of ITER VITIS (the European Wine Route) and AEPJ (the European Route of Jewish Heritage) shared their experience in developing the idea of European cultural routes.

The symposium in Paris is the first in a planned series of conferences to be held at various FECN centers. It can therefore be assumed that there will be more opportunities in the future to promote the city of Bolesławiec and the Ceramic Museum internationally (MC information).

ILLUSTRATIONS:

1. Main building of the Sorbonne University in Paris,
2. Poster for the “Museums and Battlefields” session,
3. Presentation by Vincent Chauvet, President of the European Federation of Napoleonic Cities (FECN),
4. Session “Reflections on communicating Napoleonic history in museums: toward a European history?”; from left: Carlos González Navarro (Prado National Museum in Madrid, Spain), Giovanna d’Amia (Documentation Center of the Royal Residences of Lombardy, Italy), Dr. Sandro Debono (University of Malta; moderator), Terah Walkup (Box Museum in Plymouth, United Kingdom), Christophe Beyeler (Royal Residence at Fontainebleau, France),
5. Session “Community engagement and communication beyond the museum”; from left: Katarzyna Zarówny and Tadeusz Orawiec (Ceramic Museum in Bolesławiec, Poland), Prof. Patrizia Battilani (University of Bologna, Italy; moderator), Ana Umbelino (Torres Line historical route, Spain), Elisabetta Carovani (Museum of Historical Figures in Calenzano, Italy),
6. Title slide for the presentation on Bolesławiec.

Slides 7 to the end: one of the slides for the presentation on Bolesławiec.