Foreword

This volume, updated in 2008, by John Bold and Ksenija Kovacec, is a compilation of work carried out in specific inventory fields since the 1990s and is, most importantly, based on the Core data index to historic buildings and monuments of the architectural heritage adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in 1995 in Recommendation (95) 3. It also contains more recent complementary studies, in the fields of archaeological sites and cultural objects. This volume, while explicitly establishing the value of the debate held within the Council of Europe throughout the years, puts the concept of inventory and documentation back into context in order to consider urban ensembles as specific fields of application, thus meeting current management issues concerning living conditions and the built environment. Indeed, willingness to widen this concept, placing particular emphasis on the role of inventory management is tied in with the changing perception of heritage, which has now been integrated into the organization’s priorities in view of sustainable social and economic development, social cohesion, democratic citizenship and the fight against poverty.