Jury & Selection Committee

Jacek Purchla is a Polish art historian and economist, Professor of Humanities, and a member of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences. Doctor honoris causa of the Lviv Polytechnic National University. He is the founder of the International Cultural Centre in Kraków, where he served as Director from its establishment in 1991 until 2018. Since 2018, he has held the position of Vice President of Europa Nostra.

He has founded and headed the Department of Economic and Social History and the UNESCO Chair for Heritage and Urban Studies at the Kraków University of Economics and holds the title of the Honorary Professor of this University. His academic focus includes urban studies, social and art history, and the theory and protection of cultural heritage. From 2016 to 2017, he served as President of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, and currently serves as the National Expert to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee.

Professor Purchla is actively involved in numerous organisations. He is the author of more than 600 scholarly publications, including several books translated into multiple languages.

Paul Dujardin is a cultural strategist and senior advisor on European and international cultural affairs. He serves as Senior Advisor to Flemish Minister Caroline Gennez, Commissioner-General for Heritage of the Brussels-Capital Region, President of Europa Nostra Belgium, and Member of the Council of Europa Nostra. Since August 2026, he has also served as Government Commissioner for the new KANAL–Museum, the new “Brussels-Pompidou-Centre” in Belgium.

With more than three decades of experience across cultural heritage, the arts, public policy and international cooperation, Paul has shaped cultural institutions and partnerships in Europe and beyond. As former Chief Executive and Artistic Director of BOZAR – Centre for Fine Arts Brussels, he developed European and international programmes connecting culture with education, public debate and diplomacy.

He chairs the Selection Committee for Conservation & Adaptive Reuseof the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards and serves on the board of Culture Action Europe. He also teaches cultural policy in Brussels. His work brings together heritage conservation, adaptive reuse, civic participation and international cooperation.

An architect and expert in territorial and urban planning, she has held senior leadership roles in Italy’s cultural heritage sector, combining expertise in conservation, public policy and institutional capacity building. Her career has been dedicated to safeguarding cultural heritage while advancing its role in education, sustainable development and community resilience.

She has served in senior positions at the Italian Ministry of Culture and at the Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali. From 2012 to 2020, she led the Superintendency for L’Aquila-Abruzzo, overseeing the post-2009 earthquake reconstruction programme and directing the restoration of the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, recipient of a Grand Prix at the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards in 2020. Between 2020 and 2024, she headed the Scuola dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali, strengthening national and international research, professional training and innovation in cultural heritage management.

She serves on governmental technical committees for post-earthquake reconstruction and on the advisory and scientific boards of leading cultural institutions, including the Master’s programme in Cultural Heritage Management at Politecnico di Milano and the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica

Catherine Leonard is a heritage leader and international cultural relations specialist, serving as Secretary-General of INTO – the International National Trusts Organisation, a global network of heritage organisations dedicated to protecting and promoting places of historic, cultural and natural significance. With a background in modern languages, diplomacy and international cooperation, she has spent her career strengthening connections between heritage organisations and communities worldwide.

She joined the National Trust in 1999 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, bringing experience in international public and cultural relations. Prior to her appointment at INTO, Catherine led the National Trust’s international engagement, developing programmes such as the European Exchange Programme, the Arkell Youth Fellowship and the European Network of National Heritage Organisations (ENNHO). She has played a central role in supporting the creation, development and collaboration of national trusts and similar organisations across Europe, the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and beyond.

Catherine’s work focuses on building resilient heritage networks, strengthening civil society participation and supporting capacity development in response to shared global challenges, including climate change and the sustainable stewardship of cultural and natural heritage. Through international partnerships and knowledge exchange, she promotes collaborative approaches to heritage protection that empower local communities and organisations.

She serves as a trustee of the Czech National Trust Abroad, sits on the board of SMILO (Small Islands Organisation) and is a member of the Council of Europa Nostra.

Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins holds a master’s degree in juridical and economic science. He currently serves as the president of the Grand Council of the Centro Nacional de Cultura (CNC) and as chairman of the General Assembly of the World Monuments Fund.

His extensive career includes prominent roles such as trustee of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, president of the Tribunal de Contas (Court of Auditors), and national coordinator of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

Martins has been instrumental in various governmental positions, including Minister of Presidency, Minister of Finance, Minister of Education, and Secretary of State for educative administration. He has also been actively involved in legislative affairs as a member of the Portuguese Parliament and served as vice-president of the Portuguese National Commission for UNESCO.

Mario Fernández Carrasco is a Spanish writer, translator and cultural advocate with a strong interest in heritage, collective memory and intercultural dialogue. He graduated with a BA in English Studies from the University of Jaén. He combines creative practice, youth engagement and cultural cooperation to explore new ways of connecting communities with their shared histories and cultural identities.

Over the past two years, Mario has been actively involved in youth and volunteer organisations, most notably through Erasmus Student Network Spain, where he contributed to the Department for Institutional Relations as Liaison Officer for Culture by building connections between student communities and cultural institutions. Through this work, he has developed and delivered training on cultural engagement, local heritage promotion and the creation of initiatives that make both tangible and intangible heritage more accessible to international students.

He continues supporting projects in the field of youth work and cultural heritage, also as an active member of Youth Heritage Europe. As a translator and film professional, his audiovisual projects focus on collective memory, local history and social awareness, including his contributions to the documentary on “The Bombing of Jaén”, which explores the relationship between historical memory and contemporary communities. He is a member of the Andalusian Screenwriters Association (ASECAN) and Jaén Audiovisual, a local filmmakers’ platform. He hosts and directs a podcast about world cultures with international students, “Café del Mundo” at UniRadio Jaén.

Mario serves on the Selection Committee as a representative of young heritage professionals.

Kujtime (Mimi) Kotorri is an Albanian architect and cultural heritage professional with more than a decade of experience in heritage conservation, architectural practice, research and cultural development. Her work combines the conservation of built heritage with a broader interest in education, community engagement and sustainable approaches to cultural heritage.

She is currently Project Director at the M. & M. Ivanaj Foundation Institut, where she develops initiatives in cultural heritage, education, youth engagement, research and international cooperation.

Her professional experience includes architectural and conservation work on historic monuments and cultural sites across Albania, as well as research and heritage management. Since 2021, she has been a member of the French–Albanian archaeological mission “The Drin Valley in the Middle Ages: Sarda, Komani and Lezha”, contributing to research on medieval architecture and historic landscapes.

Kotorri is actively involved in European heritage cooperation. A member of Europa Nostra since 2020 and participant in the European Heritage Youth Ambassadors Programme, she has also contributed to the Selection Committee of the European Heritage Awards / Europa Nostra Awards and participates in international heritage conferences and initiatives.

She is currently pursuing a PhD in Cultural Heritage at the University of Tirana, focusing on Sacral Heritage in Albania as a Social, Cultural and Architectural Space. Her work explores the relationship between architecture, cultural landscapes, communities and the contemporary role of heritage.
Her professional focus is increasingly centred on connecting heritage conservation, research and public engagement, and strengthening international cooperation around cultural heritage in Albania.

Branislav Rezník is a Slovak cultural heritage expert, art historian and heritage strategist with extensive experience in cultural policy, museum management, preventive conservation and heritage digitisation. Combining institutional leadership, research and international cooperation, he has dedicated his career to strengthening the protection, accessibility and sustainable management of cultural heritage.

He studied art history and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts of Comenius University in Bratislava and began his career as Director of the State Gallery in Banská Bystrica, where he also curated numerous contemporary art exhibitions in Slovakia and abroad. Between 2000 and 2010, he held senior positions at the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak National Museum, serving as Director of the Visual Arts Department, Director General of the Arts Section, Deputy Director General and later Director General of the Museum. From 2010 to 2012, he led the Cultural Heritage Section of the Ministry of Culture and coordinated a cultural heritage digitisation project for the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

Since 2013, Branislav has served as Head of the Department of Preventive Maintenance of Monuments at the Monuments Board of the Slovak Republic, where he has developed and managed major heritage preservation initiatives. As project manager of Pro Monumenta – prevention through maintenance (2014–2017), and its successors Pro Monumenta II (2019–2023), the bilateral PAAT project (2024–2025) and Pro Monumenta III (2026–2029), supported by the EEA and Norway Grants, he has advanced innovative approaches to preventive conservation and sustainable monument care.

An experienced international evaluator and advisor, Branislav has contributed to European cultural programmes including Culture 2000 and Culture 2007–2013, and has served as an expert for the Visegrad Fund and the EEA Grants in the field of cultural heritage. He was also appointed to the European Union Working Group on the Mobility of Collections and co-founded the civic initiative Zachráňme pamiatky (Let’s Save Monuments).

Dr. Stsiapan Stureika is a historian, cultural anthropologist and heritage expert specialising in heritage governance, architectural conservation and the social role of cultural heritage in Central and Eastern Europe. Based in Vilnius, Lithuania, he combines academic research, international cooperation and public engagement to explore how heritage shapes collective memory, identity and civic resilience.

He is an Associate Professor at the European Humanities University (EHU), where he develops and supervises the MA programme Cultural Heritage Development. He also serves as Chair of the Belarusian National Committee of ICOMOS and as a Member of the Council of Europa Nostra, contributing to European and international heritage networks. Since 2023, he has led the research project PreHistory: The History of Cultural Heritage Preservation in Belarus, which brings together archival research, oral history and digital documentation to trace the evolution of heritage conservation in Belarus from the Soviet period to the present.

His research explores heritage governance, nationalism, museology, architectural preservation and the changing meanings of heritage in contemporary societies. In 2024, he was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Columbia University, where he examined transformations in heritage concepts and practices across Eastern Europe.

Beyond academia, Stsiapan has initiated and supported heritage summer schools, public history projects and international conferences, while collaborating extensively with heritage organisations and community initiatives in Belarus, Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine. Prior to the closure of independent cultural organisations in Belarus, he contributed to national heritage competitions and public heritage campaigns, and he continues to support Belarusian cultural and heritage initiatives across Europe.

He is the author of several books and numerous academic publications.

Pavlos Chatzigrigoriou is a civil engineer, cultural heritage expert and digital heritage specialist exploring the ways technology can enhance the understanding, preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage. Combining engineering, conservation, research and community engagement, he works at the intersection of digital innovation and heritage practice to develop new approaches to documenting and sharing cultural memory.

He holds a background in monument conservation and environmental planning, as well as a PhD in Architecture focused on Digital Cultural Heritage. Following postdoctoral research at the University of the Aegean, where he also teaches Digital Heritage, Pavlos has developed expertise in the application of digital technologies to heritage documentation, management and public engagement.

More than a decade ago, he co-founded HERMeS (HERitage Management e-Society), a non-profit organisation dedicated to the digital documentation and management of cultural heritage. Through HERMeS, he has led and contributed to projects ranging from large-scale heritage inventories and 3D documentation to community-based initiatives and European cooperation programmes. In 2015, the organisation’s work received a Europa Nostra Award in the Research and Digitisation category, recognising its contribution to innovative heritage practices.

Since 2024, Pavlos has served as Managing Director and Scientific Responsible of the Historical Museum of Hermoupolis, where he has guided the development of the institution during its formative years. Under his leadership, a restored nineteenth-century mansion has evolved into a dynamic cultural space combining historical research, storytelling, education, digital technologies and community participation. His work focuses on strengthening the museum’s sustainability, expanding educational programmes, engaging new audiences and positioning it as a centre for cultural heritage knowledge and innovation in the Cyclades.