The Guide to Colourful Europe PDF has been launched to highlight interesting and lesser-known examples of Europe’s heritage and to draw attention to the colourful buildings, sites and traditions which may be lost through climatic changes occurring because of global warming. This first edition of the guide is part of a new and exciting partnership between Europa Nostra and AkzoNobel.

Europe is home to a plethora of colourful heritage buildings and sites which are powerful symbols of our cultural history and diversity, provoking thoughts, memories and emotions. With this Guide, we seek to highlight that besides the plain masonry of Europe’s many cathedrals and palaces, there are many examples spread throughout the continent of distinctive detailing and colour palates, dramatic juxtapositions of tint and tone, and uplifting splashes of brightness, which add local colour and create traditions in vernacular architecture and urban settlements.

Explore the distinctive colour palates of each of the ten sites chosen for the Guide from across Europe. Ranging from a quaint village to a sophisticated city, from an eccentric mountain-top palace to a group of unique monasteries, from a fleet of cheerful fishing boats to the proud structures of an early industrial site, these treasures of Europe’s cultural heritage make us remember that our continent is full of colour, full of life!

Included in the Guide to Colourful Europe are photos and stories of:

• Riquewihr in Alsace, France
• The Orgosolo Murales in Sardinia, Italy
• The Dghajsas and Luzzus of Marsaxlokk, Malta
• The Zaanse Schans Museum of Zaandam, The Netherlands
• The Kjeungskjaer Lighthouse of Uthaug, Norway
• Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal
• The Painted Monasteries in and around Bucovina, Romania
• Buildings along the River Neva in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• The Casa Vicens in Barcelona, Spain
• Sokullu Mehmet Paşa Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey

You can participate in an interactive forum on Facebook by becoming a “fan” of the “Guide to Colourful Europe” page. Comment on the Guide’s buildings and sites, visit these colourful heritage locations, and send us your photos, stories and opinions upon return!

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Colour and heritage have always been a part of AkzoNobel. Ever since its beginnings in 1646, AkzoNobel has created and supplied innovative products which have protected and beautified many of the world’s most familiar - and unfamiliar - buildings and structures. This partnership with Europa Nostra answers the quest of both organisations to preserve the beauty and cultural diversity of Europe’s built heritage.

Heritage organisations are rallying to protect our vulnerable assets from raising temperatures, changing precipitation levels and the consequent increases in droughts and flooding. These effects have been demonstrated and effectively catalogued in the “Noah’s Ark Project – Global Climate Change Impact on Built Heritage and Cultural Landscapes”, the EU funded project which won the Grand Prize in the Research Category of the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage / Europa Nostra Awards in 2009.

Europa Nostra has fully endorsed the Dublin Declaration on Climate Change which was adopted at the International National Trusts Organisation (INTO) General Assembly on 13 September 2009. In the Dublin Declaration, heritage organisations from across the world call on governments, and public and private agencies to raise public awareness about the effects of climate change on our built and natural heritage, and suggest steps to help mitigate its worst effects.

Europa Nostra and AkzoNobel trust that visitors to the Guide to Colourful Europe will enjoy exploring our selection of unique – and colourful – examples of European cultural treasures. We hope you will be inspired to visit them, whether in reality or on-line - and that you will tell us about it via our Facebook Fan Page ! Join us in our mission to safeguard and enhance the enormous range of built and natural heritage monuments, sites and landscapes in Europe.