Award

France Stele Prizes for 2023

The Slovenian Conservation Society awards prizes to experts for outstanding achievements in the field of conservation.The Society was named after the first professional conservator in Slovenia, academician France Stele (1886-1972). The first concern of the field conservator France Stele was with churches and castles, archaeological finds and museum collections. He worked for their preservation by example and by writing.

Each year, the Society awards prizes to fellow conservators for outstanding achievements in renovations, which are the fruit of original professional, technological and other efforts and searches in the preservation and presentation of cultural heritage and natural values in the Republic of Slovenia, and to owners or other citizens who, by their example, help to preserve Slovenia's cultural heritage. Each year, the award ceremony and the exhibition on the winners provide an opportunity to remember the often anonymous experts and to thank them for their outstanding professional achievements. Without them, Slovenia would have fewer castles, trestles and bell towers on the hills, and we would live in a more degraded landscape. Conservators deserve the respect of all of us.

We work daily in various fields of culture, science and education to promote and interpret cultural heritage. We are aware that the world around us is only as valuable as we know it. And the more we know it, the more we understand it, and the more we understand it, the more we love it. The charm of heritage is that, with careful observation, everyone can find something for themselves - aesthetics and beauty, technological sophistication in the context of the times, the careful use of materials, original detailing. But it can also be (just) a beautiful experience in a particular setting, which will remain etched in our memories for a long time to come. Heritage brings together the life and wisdom of our ancestors, whose ingenuity and understanding of the world have shaped the world we live in today. The preservation of immovable cultural heritage thus has broader dimensions in an intensively globalising world and offers wide development opportunities for the preservation of our cultural identity.