In January 2017 the archaeology project Monumentalized Early Iron Age Landscapes in the Danube river basin, in short Iron-Age-Danube, began. The EU-project with 20 project partners from five countries, which is co-funded by the EU's Interreg Danube Transnational Program, is one of the Europe's most innovative regional projects and by this in the final of the EU-wide RegioStars 2018 competition.

Archaeological excavations at the Königsberg near Heimschuh as part of the Archaeology Camp Austria 2017 in the EU project Iron-Age-Danube. Photo: Universalmuseum Joanneum/M. Mele.

Iron-Age-Danube stands for Monumentalized Early Iron Age Landscapes in the Danube river basin and is a project funded by the Interreg Danube Transnational Program with ERDF funding € 2,169,200.00 (85% of the total project volume of around € 2,552,000.00). The project started on 1st January 2017 and will end in June 2019.

By June 2019, eleven project partners and nine associate partners from five countries (Croatia, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary) are using modern technologies for research of the rich archaeological heritage of the Early Iron Age (Hallstatt period), in order to create a new and exciting touristic product of the Danube region and at the same time build up a broad international network for its protection.

The project's activities range from the development of an international strategy for the trans-regional protection and sustainable use of archaeological landscapes, archaeological field research with state-of-the-art technical equipment to new digital and analogue products for tourists in the selected micro-regions Großklein (AT) , Strettweg (AT), Százhalombatta (HU), Sütto (HU), Sopron (HU), Jalžabet (CRO), Kaptol (CRO), Poštela (SI) and Dolenjske Toplice (SI).

The RegioStars Awards are the European Commission's recognition award for the most inspiring and innovative regional projects supported by EU Cohesion Policy funding. The award will be presented by EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Creţu, and the Chairman of the RegioStars Jury, MEP Lambert van Nistelrooij and Kerstin Westphal. A jury of fifteen members has evaluated 102 projects across Europe funded by EU funds and created a list of 21 finalists from 20 countries, divided into five categories. The Iron-Age-Danube project is one of five finalists in the Investing in Cultural Heritage category. The finalists will be involved in a Europe-wide promotion campaign, following a certificate ceremony in Strasbourg on 3 July 2018. The winners in each category, to be determined by a European-wide public vote from 3 July 2018, will be announced on 9 October 2018 at the European Week of Regions in Brussels. Please vote for our project!

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/regio-stars-awards/