From its first implementation in 2010, the aim of EU MODEX has been to better prepare modules, capacities, civil protection authorities and experts for international deployments under the Union Civil Protection Mechanism – UCPM, to ensure a faster, coordinated and efficient response to emergencies. In Venice from 17 to 20 October 2024, thanks to the fruitful cooperation between the EU MODEX consortium (1) and the PROCULTHER-NET partners, the EU MODEX, for the first time, opened up to operations for the protection of cultural heritage including a dedicated team and two experts embedded in the EUCP Team to protect cultural assets.
The general scenario proposed was dramatic: a tornado with an intensity of F3/F4 hit the lagoon area and the hinterland, with consequent flooding that caused an emergency of unexpected dimensions, impossible to cope with using national rescue forces, hence the request to activate the Mechanism. PROCULTHER-NET 2, in collaboration with experts from the Italian Civil Protection Department – DPC, the Civil Protection of the Municipality of Venice, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage and the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service through its Short-Term-Countermeasures (STC) team, worked together with the EU MODEX organizers to develop the cultural heritage protection scenario. In addition to deaths, injured, people missing and thousands of citizens evacuated, the affected country recorded several critical situations affecting cultural heritage: approximately 1.500 buildings suffered severe damage due to water penetration from the lagoon and intense thunderstorms that caused damage to many roofs and fixtures of museums, historic buildings and churches.
Upon request of the affected country the Cultural Heritage Response Unit (CHRU), a specialized team from Germany, was then deployed on the field. The team was comprised of disaster risk managers, conservators, documentation and assessment experts in both immovable and movable cultural assets. These 7 experts had been trained under the KulturGutRetter project (2) – an initiative led by two key partners of the PROCULTHER-NET 2 consortium, the German Archaeological Institute – DAI, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief – THW, together with the Leibniz Centre for Archaeology – LEIZA.
France, another PROCULTHER-NET 2 partner country, contributed to this EU MODEX by involving a UCPM-trained expert in cultural heritage protection embedded in the EU Civil Protection (EUCP) Team. This expert, a preventive conservation specialist from the Centre de Recherche et de Restauration des Musées de France – C2RMF, was nominated by the Ministère de l’Intérieur – Direction Générale de la Sécurité Civile et la Gestion de Crise – DGSCGC. Her role was to provide the EUCP team with specialized knowledge to support coordination and response efforts tailored to the disaster scenario created for this exercise.
In addition, a firefighter expert in structural engineering from Austria, who participated in the advanced training programme proposed by PROCULTHER-NET in 2023, was included in the EUCP Team to contribute with his expertise to the planned activities.
At EXCON (Exercise Control), PROCULTHER-NET and Italian Civil Protection Department representatives proposed injects designed to prompt the actions of the specialised team in the field.
The exercise began on 17 October with a meeting at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice where the local Authorities for Cultural Heritage – represented by the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Civil Protection Authority – reported the situation to the experts and listed the specific cultural heritage sites that required immediate action. Since one of the EU MODEX objectives was to test the effectiveness of standard operating procedures, the CHRU was asked to use the seven assessment forms proposed by PROCULTHER Methodology, a series of templates providing a useful database for decision-making on the subject of securing tangible and intangible cultural heritage and a guide on the actions to be implemented.
In all activities, the CHRU worked in keen collaboration with a team of local Civil Protection volunteers specially trained in handling movable cultural heritage and each intervention of the CHRU has been preceded by structural inspections carried out with the Italian STC team so as to assess the usability of the sites and identify the actions needed to secure them. This allowed the evaluation of the coordination and interoperability capacities between modules and teams, which is another objective of the EU MODEX.
Further to the usual operations for documenting, cataloguing and packing the cultural assets, with the indispensable cooperation of local civil protection volunteers specially trained for this type of delicate work on movable heritage, the CHRU identified safer sites for the temporary storage of the recovered cultural assets.
The CHRU and the Italian civil protection volunteers began field interventions with an inspection of the Celestia Municipal Archive. This scenario entailed interesting challenges for the treatment and securing of archive assets damaged by water intrusion.
A key scenario involved the San Lorenzo Church, a sixteenth-century structure no longer used for worship. (3) The church, which houses valuable ancient artworks, suffered significant damage due to its proximity to the canal and exposure to wind and water. Heavy rains entered through the windows and the door near the canal, causing harm to the movable assets inside. In response, the CHRU was tasked with assessing the damage, securing at-risk cultural heritage items, and organizing their evacuation via waterway to a safer temporary location. This unique situation posed several logistical challenges due to the need for boat transport during the rainy season. With the invaluable support of a skilled team of civil protection volunteers, all the assets were successfully transported through the Canal Grande and unloaded without damage.
The last site concerned was the sculpted facade of the San Stae Church, where the Madonna and Child sculpture had been shattered due to strong winds. This severely damaged sculpture was presented to the CHRU as a symbol of local civil protection, holding significant intangible value for the community during such dramatic contingencies.
The next phase involved the usual operations related to documenting, cataloguing and packing of cultural assets, with the indispensable cooperation of local civil protection volunteers specially trained for this type of delicate work on movable heritage. The CHRU identified three safe sites for the temporary storage of the recovered cultural assets among the four proposed.
In all the intervention sites there was no shortage of special injects to test the experts deployed, such as thefts in the buildings, or spectacular interventions, such as the transport of the recovered assets by waterway, with the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Cultural Heritage escort for ensuring the security of the transfer.
Throughout the duration of the exercise, the cultural heritage expert embedded in the EUCP Team assessed the cultural heritage sites, thus ensuring the prompt response through coordinating with local authorities all needed interventions. All involved cultural heritage experts and teams were available to deal with the different challenges posed by the scenario from the cultural, logistical and operational perspective.
In total, more than 600 people joined this EU MODEX: around 270 experts composing the EMT modules (medical rescuers) from Denmark, Poland, Romania and Spain, the USAR teams from the Austria, Cyprus and Czech Republic, together with the team of structural engineers from the Italian National Fire and Rescue Service, hundreds of local civil protection professionals and trained volunteers, operators from the Italian Red Cross, and about 200 extras to make it all more real.
This EU MODEX is a significant milestone, offering the European Commission valuable insights for developing a cultural heritage module within the UCPM. It also provides the PROCULTHER-NET community with lessons learned to refine tools that ensure the protection of cultural heritage to be fully integrated into the Mechanism’s operational structure.
(1) Die Krisenplaner GmbH, D.M.A.T Consulting KG (Austria), DG Fire Safety and Civil Protection (Bulgaria), Danish Emergency Management Agency (Denmark), PETE Advising Ltd (Finland), Johanniter-Unfall-Hilfe e.V., KSK Stabkonzepte, TIDE GmbH (Germany), National Commissioner of Police (Iceland), Italian Civil Protection Department (Italy), Università del Piemonte Orientale (Italy), National Headquarters of the State Fire Service (Poland), Guarda Nacional Republicana, Instituto Nacional de Emergência Médica (Portugal), Romanian Department of Emergency Situations (Romania), Federal Office for Civil Protection (Switzerland), AKUT Search and Rescue Association, General Directorate of Emergency Healthcare Services (Türkiye)
(2) KGR project website https://www.kulturgutretter.org/en/home-2/
(3) This stunning location has been made available by TBA21–Academy, the foundation that manage the infrastructure called “Ocean Space” from 2016: Ocean Space website https://www.ocean-space.org/about/church-san-lorenzo