Symbols is a joint project of 6 partners across Europe that wanted to explore the presence, stories and interpretations of symbols at European cemeteries.

Beginning of the project Symbols

The idea came to life in 2014 as an application for a project of the Directorate for Culture of the European Commission. In the previously successful project EUCEMET has been pointed out, that European cemeteries are rich with symbols, but their meaning and stories are unknown to visitors. The project was rated as the second best among all the received applications.

Activities within the project

In October 2014 a number of activities started within the project Symbols and are still taking place today. Among them we can point out the creation of a common database of symbols, realization of artistic interpretations of symbols (the exhibition), workshops with young people (students), workshops with specific target groups (people with disabilities) and organisation of seminars.

Purpose of the project

The general aim of project Symbols is to explore the presence, stories and interpretations of symbols at the cemeteries and by doing this to strengthen the knowledge and public awareness about the importance of cemeteries and funerary arts as:

• part of European cultural heritage and collective memory,
• the transnational circulation of cultural and creative works and
• the transnational mobility of cultural and creative players (in particular artists).

Identify symbols at your cemetery and include them to the project

As members of Cemeteries route you can do this very easily. Log in to ARTOUR with your username and password (you don't have it yet?) and add the interesting symbols at your cemetery. When editing a point with interesting symbol, just include the keyword of symbol represented at that point.

Then join the Symbols project as presented in the following video:

This will automatically reflect in several ways:

• Your point visible at Symbols project website (under corresponding symbols)
• Your point in mobile guide will be enriched by symbols description and artistic work

For example: the point with keyword arch will automatically be visible at the Arch symbol description and the description of the Arch will be visible in the mobile guide presentation of this point.

Project partners

Avilés City Council – Municipal Foundation for Culture (Spain)
Communauté de Communes du Nebbiu (France)
Dundee & Angus college (Great Britain)
Genoa Municipality (Italy)
Limmerick School of Arts & Design (Ireland)
Pogrebno podjetje Maribor (Slovenia).

For more information visit the website.