Din l-Art Helwa founder wins top European award

The European Union and Europa Nostra yesterday awarded Judge Maurice Caruana Curran, the founder of heritage NGO Din l-Art Helwa, with a top prize for cultural heritage at the European Heritage Awards Ceremony which took place in Bergen, Norway.

A total of 38 laureates from 21 countries in Europe were recognised for their exemplary achievements. Judge Caruana Curran won the top award in the category of Dedicated Service To Heritage Conservation, in recognition of his unwavering commitment to the ideals of conservation, his ability to speak fearlessly for heritage and his unflinching spirit of volunteership.

The award carried the prize of €10,000 which Judge Caruana Curran will be dedicating to Din L-Art Helwa's restoration programmes.

Europa Nostra, the pan-European federation for heritage, is the representative platform of over 200 heritage NGOs active throughout Europe.

Judge Caruana Curran received his award and prize from Europa Nostra's president, HRH the Prince Consort of Denmark, and Harald Hartung, head of the culture unit at the Directorate-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission.

Judge Caruana Curran has dedicated over 40 years to upholding the cause of cultural heritage in Malta and is considered by all in Malta to be the pioneer and pillar of the national conservation movement. In 1965 he founded Din l-Art Helwa, a voluntary non-governmental organisation, to assist the state in the conservation of environmental and cultural heritage.

He succeeded in arousing the awareness of the public and of the government to the importance of Malta's extraordinary heritage, lobbying against the misuse of land, the destruction of traditional architecture, the effects of the increase in tourism and development, for an improved legislation and for the listing of buildings. He toiled tirelessly to find volunteers, rally membership, raise funds and campaign on issues.

Under his leadership, Din l-Art Helwa restored 30 historic sites, a youth section was formed, and Vigilo, the watchdog periodical, regularly published. All his work was carried out voluntarily, while simultaneously pursuing a long and versatile career as one of Malta's most distinguished lawyers and judges, then as president of the Medical Council and Chancellor of the University of Malta.

In 1967, Din l-Art Helwa became the seventh NGO to become a member of Europa Nostra.

In 2004 Din l-Art Helwa was granted legal guardianship of 12 of the historic sites it has restored. These consist of eight towers dating to the period of the Knights of St. John, the Msida Bastion Garden of Rest with its neoclassic funerary monuments and three medieaval chapels, among which its most precious, Hal Millieri Church of the Annunciation, dating back to 1450 and hosting a unique cycle of wall paintings of the Byzantine rite.

The European Heritage Awards Scheme was launched in 2002 by the European Commission, as part of the implementation of the EU Culture 2000 Programme. Europa Nostra was selected to run the awards scheme, on the basis of its long experience in publicly recognising, on a European level, individual or joint excellence in the heritage field. In 2006, Europa Nostra will hold its Annual Congress in Valletta from May 16-21 in co-operation with Din l-Art Helwa.

"I heartily congratulate the laureates for their achievements and for their contribution to protecting our collective culture, without which we would not be able to experience our collective history and without which our continent would be a less beautiful place," said Ján Figel, a member of the European Commission responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism