Ministry of Culture will ensure continuity of heritage protection project FIXUS Mobilis
For the last three years, FIXIS Mobilis, a project of cultural heritage assets’ preventative maintenance funded by the financial mechanism of the European Economic Area (EEA), has been conducting inspections of buildings included in the Cultural Heritage Register as well as other constructions in the entire Lithuania, performing maintenance work, and providing consultations to owners and operators.
On 21 April, at an event of FIXUS Mobilis, the interim results of the projects were presented which demonstrate the progress toward implementing the planned tasks and achieving the set goals. Currently, half of the planned preventative maintenance tasks have been completed in 153 of 200 selected assets. They were performed by 3 mobile teams that consist of 11 preventative maintenance specialists. In the regions, consultations and practical training sessions are also held.
The Vice-Minister of Culture Rimantas Mikaitis, who attended the events, reported that the ministry will ensure the project’s continuity for an additional five years after the EEE mechanism’s funding ends at the end of this year.
The event’s participants underlined the project’s significance in the field of the preservation of heritage maintenance. This is the first practice of such scale which is oriented toward preventative measures for heritage maintenance, when, using minimal expenses in terms of time and resources, prevention is ensured of larger violations of cultural heritage assets that would eventually require more serious maintenance work and larger financial resources. It was emphasised that the most frequent threat to heritage assets is moisture which is caused by clogged drainpipes as well as roofing defects.
Participants of FIXUS Mobilis’ event included heads of the institutions that are implementing the project, the Cultural Heritage Centre and the Cultural Infrastructure Centre, the director of the project’s partner, the Department of Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture, also, representatives of the Central Project Management Agency and the Ministry of Culture. Partners from Norway connected remotely: representatives of the country’s Directorate for Cultural Heritage Riksantikvaren and the KA Church Employers' Association, which is implementing the Kirkevakta preventative maintenance project.
During the event, presentations were held on the Lithuanian and Norwegian systems of heritage monitoring and maintenance, participants were invited to get acquainted with the specialists’ daily activities: practical workshop of rain water disposal system was held, Fixus Mobilis mobile workshop was visited; using the latter, specialists visit cultural heritage assets in the entire Lithuania.
Last updated: 24-05-2022