Students from Skopje, Korçë and Thessaloniki in Pretor: Prespa as a heritage the three neighbours share

Prespa is a lake shared by three countries, and for a long time that was more a reason for borders than for conversation. So it is worth noting when students from Skopje, Korçë and Thessaloniki sit down at the same table in Pretor for three days to talk about the heritage they share.

The three-day student conference "The Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Prespa Region as a Means of Communication Across the Centuries - Contemporary Perspectives" was organised by the Institute and Museum Bitola as part of the ACT4PRESPA project, supported by the European Union through the "EU for Prespa" programme. Twelve student papers from four academic institutions were presented: the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Skopje, the Institute for the Protection of Architectural Heritage at the Faculty of Architecture in Skopje, the "Fan S. Noli" University in Korçë, and the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia in Thessaloniki.

The topics ranged from traditional costumes, customs and collective memory to monastery complexes, natural assets and sustainable tourism. The participants also went into the field, to Ljubojno, a village with the status of a protected heritage ensemble. "Prespa is not just a geographical space, but a living witness of time, in which nature and culture have been intertwined for centuries," said project coordinator Dr Meri Stojanova.

The ideas are good, and the young researchers clearly have them. What remains is the question that usually follows gatherings funded with European money: will this knowledge reach the municipalities that decide who builds by the lake and how the old houses of Ljubojno are looked after - or will it end up in a book of proceedings?