Description:
By rescuing and repairing more than 300 historic buidings and training more than 100 local craftsmen in traditional building skills, the Mihai Eminescu Trust has done more than any other single organisation for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Saxon Transylvania, a treasure of unique European value. Particularly in rural areas, the massive exodus of Transylvanian Saxons to Germany in the 1990s left many villages empty and abandoned. Some of these have World Heritage status, and yet hundreds inestimable historic buildings are crumbling away because of lack of money and neglect. For over 7 years, the MET has been working to revitalise the social end economic life of these villages, supporting heritage-sensitive income generating activities such as ecological and cultural tourism, organic agriculture and crafts. N.B. Already nominated in 2004.