ICOM (International Council of Museums) and ICOMOS jointly call upon the National Ministries of the member states of the European Union, the European Parliament and all European institutions in charge of the regulation, to repeal as soon as possible the classification of nitrogen as a biocidal active substance in the EU for the specific purpose of heritage preservation.

Nitrogen is globally used for the preservation of monuments and museum objects, in the context of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM), instead of other potentially hazardous chemical substances. There is no equivalent alternative in terms of preservation care and human health, for both staff and visitors of cultural heritage institutions.

We call upon the European Chemicals Agency to support this initiative and repeal as soon as possible the ban of nitrogen for heritage preservation in the EU.

Read the ICOM-ICOMOS Joint Statement:

in English

in French

in Spanish

Did you know that being an ICOMOS member grants you a free access to numerous historic sites, historic monuments and museums all over the world? ICOMOS National Committees have indeed set agreements at national level allowing the ICOMOS community to discover and enjoy cultural heritage places.

To find out what sites/monuments/museums are concerned in a specific country, click here. 

To learn more about how to become an ICOMOS member, click here. 

In 1982, ICOMOS established 18 April as the International Day for Monuments and Sites. UNESCO approved it the following year during its 22^nd General Conference. Since then, 18 April has been a day to celebrate and promote cultural heritage, and an opportunity to raise awareness about its diversity, its relevance, how vulnerable it can be and what the needs and benefits of its conservation are. Every year, ICOMOS proposes a theme for the celebrations and activities to be organised by the ICOMOS National and International Scientific Committees and by other organisations that wish to participate. In 2019, the theme is Rural Landscapes – which is linked to the theme of the 2019 ICOMOS Scientific Symposium on Rural heritage to take place in October in Marrakesh, Morocco (see our page about the Symposium and the call for proposals).

Download the 18 April 2019 leaflet in: English - French - Spanish.

Khan Asaad Pasha in Damascus (Photo credits: Samir Abdulac)

We invite you to explore and discover the sites and virtual tours on Project Anqa’s web platform, provided by the Carleton Immersive Media Studio (CIMS), a Carleton University Research Centre (CURC).

We are happy to announce that ICOMOS has opened its official Instagram account.

We invite you to join us on Instagram at icomosinternational. 

Instagram is a social network which allows you to share photos and videos. Each photo or video can be described with hashtags through which you can navigate and easily find posts with a specific theme or content. Among the existing hashtags, ICOMOS will regularly use (for example): 

#icomos #historicmonument #historicsite #worldheritagesite #worldculturalheritage #culturalheritage #heritage #monument

Feel free to comment, like or share our publications!

 Go to ICOMOS Instagram profile

A workshop for the third phase of the Connecting Practice project that ICOMOS and IUCN are undertaking with The Christensen Fund’s support took place in ICOMOS headquarters near Paris, France on 7 and 8 February 2019. The Connecting Practice project is an initiative which aims to explore, learn about and create new methods of recognition and support for the interconnected character of the natural, cultural and social values of World Heritage Sites. Following the successful first two phases of Connecting Practice, the third phase continues to explore and to implement lessons learned into practical interventions and new mechanisms for achieving positive results for agricultural and biocultural practices.