Tyrol foundation sets aside €1.75 million for heritage projects

Tyrol’s Landesgedächtnisstiftung foundation has set aside €1.75 million to preserve cultural monuments and support museum projects, ORF reported. The foundation’s board of trustees recently approved the funding.

The money will support restoration and conversion work at several buildings, including the former Franciscan monastery in Reutte, the listed Kirchenwirt veranda in Weerberg, St Anna’s cemetery chapel in Sillian and St Michael’s parish church in Schönwies. Funding will also go towards renovating the former primary school in Baumkirchen, which is to become the municipal office.

Smaller projects receiving support include roof repairs at the cemetery chapel in Schwendt and St Joseph the Worker parish church in Ötztal-Bahnhof.

The foundation also plans to support students. In Innsbruck, it will acquire allocation rights for 35 student housing units under construction. This will allow it to assign units to students from Tyrol at Reichenauerstraße 149, known as Sandwirt.

“The Landesgedächtnisstiftung should preserve old buildings and, at the same time, make new knowledge possible,” Tyrol Governor Anton Mattle of the Austrian People’s Party said.

Founded for the 1959 commemorative year, the foundation has been extended until 2034. It is funded equally by the state of Tyrol and the region’s municipalities. Herwig van Staa, chair of its board of trustees, said cooperation among municipal, state and federal authorities, as well as church institutions and private initiatives, was important to the projects.