The countries of Europe are celebrating their heritage this month, opening up exhibitions that range from graffiti in Gestapo jails to Stone-Age remains. The European Heritage Days, now in their 15th year, are being observed in some 50 nations.
They are designed to play "a key role in the search for identity and the affirmation of our collective memory," as well as in safeguarding the patrimony of the continent, in the words of the Council of Europe. They are also intended to combat xenophobia as Europeans appreciate the history of each other's countries, the council says. The heritage takes many forms.
In France, the interior ministry is for the first time showing Gestapo prisons in Paris where the World War II detainees - many of them destined for the firing squad - left messages scribbled on the walls with smuggled pencils.
They range from defiance ("Frankreich ueber alles") to love messages ("I can't sleep for thinking about my parents and my beloved Louisette") to a frank "I'm scared".
In the south of France, the city of Marseilles is showing shellfish and other remnants of the life of voyagers from what are now Syria, Turkey and the Palestinian territories who settled there around 6000 BC.
Other sites cover the gamut from Roman amphitheatres to botanical gardens.
The Czech Republic launched the heritage days at the beginning of this month with a ceremony in the Mirror Chapel of the Clementinum, a Baroque complex that was once a Jesuit college and is now the national library, followed by an old-style Bohemian fair in a Prague square.
In France, where the heritage days are being celebrated this weekend, and where all entry charges are being dropped, authorities expect more than 12 million visitors at the 15,480 sites being opened up, 999 of them for the first time. In Paris, the nave of the Grand Palais, one of the capital's architectural landmarks, is being reopened to the public after 12 years of restoration.
"Across Europe, 20 million visitors toured the sites last year," said Christine Andre, the press attache for the French culture ministry's department of architecture and heritage.
"France initiated the European Heritage Days," she said, pointing out that they were first proposed by then French culture minister Jack Lang in 1984.
"All European Union countries now participate." On whether the days could be expanded beyond Europe, she replied: "Why not?" but added: "but there is no such initiative for the time being." Associated events this year include a photographic competition for young people, with the photos on the Council of Europe website (www.coe.int).
European Heritage Days co-ordinators planned this year's events at a meeting in 1,000-year-old Kazan, the little-known capital of the republic of Tatarstan in the Russian Federation.
That meeting was designed to point up the city's cultural diversity, which includes Turkish, Finno-Ugric, Bulgarian and Russian influences, along with Islam and Christianity.
Those influences adds "special appeal to this city, which has major tourism potential," the council said hopefully, adding that it epitomises a place of heritage where "many different cultures and identities, some from far distant places, can come together and interact to form a common European asset that must be respected and protected."