The draft law on cultural heritage has been voted by the Chamber of Deputies

On Thursday 10 February 2022, the new law on cultural heritage was voted by the Chamber of Deputies. It is an important step towards the protection and enhancement of Luxembourg's cultural heritage. This law introduces provisions aimed at architectural and archaeological heritage as well as movable and intangible heritage. 

The aim is to protect cultural heritage as a major element of sustainable development and cultural diversity, to enhance the value of cultural heritage through its identification, study, safeguarding and protection, as well as to strengthen social cohesion by fostering a sense of shared responsibility for the common living space.

The new law modernizes the legal provisions relating to cultural heritage by introducing more coherence and legal certainty into the protection of cultural heritage. It also implements the provisions of international texts ratified by Luxembourg, as well as European texts in this area.

The law spreads its provisions over four aspects of cultural heritage, namely archaeological heritage, architectural heritage, movable heritage and finally intangible heritage.

The new Cultural Heritage Act introduces the principle of preventive archaeology, according to which building projects located in an archaeological observation zone must, under certain conditions, be submitted to the Minister of Culture for an archaeological assessment. The archaeological assessment procedure provides developers with greater predictability in the context of planned works, as it replaces the emergency archaeological operations that previously had to be carried out in the event of an incidental archaeological discovery.

With regard to architectural heritage, there are several changes compared to the law in force until now. Firstly, the new law introduces an inventory of the architectural heritage, which identifies and documents the immovable properties that are a part of the architectural heritage. Secondly, the law establishes the necessary criteria by which a building is included in the inventory of architectural heritage. It also establishes criteria by which a building is classified as national cultural heritage or integrated in a protected area of national interest. The classification procedure itself is adapted to ensure greater consistency and to take better account of public opinion. The architectural heritage is protected, municipality by municipality, on the basis of the aforementioned inventory of the architectural heritage, by means of grand-ducal regulations which will replace the decrees of the minister and the Council of Government, which have been in force until now. The text also further strengthens the legal security of owners by providing for the abolition of the supplementary inventory.

A transitional regime is put in place during the period of elaboration and finalization of the inventory of architectural heritage.

For movable heritage, the law introduces a new procedure for the classification of cultural property, as well as a modern circulation regime that implements international and European legal texts and replaces the current rules, which have become incomplete and outdated. The text includes areas not previously covered by national legislation, such as State guarantees and restitution guarantees.

Finally, the law gives legal recognition to intangible heritage (traditions, know-how, etc.) in the form of the establishment of an inventory and measures to ensure its protection.

With the passing of the law on cultural heritage, certain institutions were also given the status of State cultural institute, thus the National Centre for Archaeological Research became the National Institute for Archaeological Research (INRA) and the Service for National Sites and Monuments became the National Institute for Architectural Heritage (INPA).

Information and exchange meetings

Following the adoption of the cultural heritage law, Minister of Culture Sam Tanson is pleased to invite anyone interested to one of four meetings to present the new cultural heritage law. At these meetings, the public will have the opportunity to ask questions to the experts present.

These regional meetings will take place:

  • For the Southern region: 2 March 2022 at 7pm at the Artikuss in Soleuvre;
  • For the Eastern region: on 14 March 2022 at 7pm at the Maacher Lycée reception hall in Grevenmacher;
  • For the Northern region: 15 March 2022 at 7pm at the Centre des Arts Pluriels (CAPE) in Ettelbruck;
  • For the Centre region: 22 March 2022 at 7pm at the Neumünster Abbey in Luxembourg City.

Press release by the Ministry of Culture

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