Cultural Property Protection Exercises

The evacuation exercise LINDAU23 takes place during the Summer School 2023 as part of the project Risk Management for Cultural Heritage. The exercise is based on a simulated fire in the Stadtarchiv Lindau, which is extinguished by the Lindau Fire Brigade (exercise as part of Summer School 2023).
The participants of the Summer School 2023 are called in as heritage protection experts to evacuate and recover the archive material from the first floor of the archive.  
After a short briefing, the different areas of responsibility are identified and allocated. The most promising evacuation strategy is discussed based on the different experiences and knowledge of the participants. Soon after this is done, evacuating begins.
A secure depot is set up on the premises of the Stadtarchiv, where the recovered objects are examined, sorted, labelled and stored.
The exercise reveals the challenges that may arise in an emergency and the failures that are to be avoided with a prepared emergency plan and a well-rehearsed team.

The KOLOMANI18 evacuation exercise is part of the ProteCHt2save Summer School 2018. The culturally and historically significant artefacts of the fictional "Abbey Museum" in Melk Abbey are threatened by a devastating flood and must be evacuated immediately.
The Summer School participants, together with liaison officers for military heritage protection from the Military Command of Lower Austria, as well as members of Pioneer Battalion 3 and the Austrian Police, act as Cultural Heritage Rescue Teams (CHRTs). The teams evacuate all artefacts from the collection and transport them to a secure collection room at the Birago barracks in Melk. In this depot, the objects are safely stored and inventoried so that they can be returned to the monastery once the crisis is over.  
The evacuation is carried out in accordance with Melk Abbey's newly developed emergency plan, which is to be tested under realistic conditions.

The TRITOLIA18 disaster response exercise is being organised as part of the ProteCHt2save project. The training venue is the former World War I ammunition factory "Tritolwerk", which has been converted by the Austrian Armed Forces into a training area for global rescue missions. For the disaster response exercise, the Tritolwerk has been transformed into the fictional imperial summer residence "Schloss Tritol", analogous to the Austrian UNESCO World Heritage Site Schönbrunn Palace.

Day 1 of the exercise consists of a predominantly theoretical part: it starts with briefings on the procedures of the Austrian Armed Forces in such situations and the course of their decision-making processes. The participants work in teams to develop possible scenarios for the Rescue and Recovery Teams that will be called in to recover the cultural objects. At the same time, the fictitious rescue and evacuation of people from the earthquake region takes place. The three teams regularly report to the Commander of the NBC Defence Command on possible operations of the Rescue and Recovery Unit. It is decided to mobilise the Unit from Mautern to Tritol Castle.

On the second day of the exercise, the teams are sent to Tritol Castle as Cultural Property Protection Assessment Teams to evaluate the plans developed for the emergency situation and to determine the operation of the Rescue and Recovery Unit. Valuable furniture, the astronomical collection, the papyrus collection and other paintings from the portrait gallery can be recovered from the earthquake damage at Tritol Castle by the Cultural Heritage Teams themselves. A statue on the roof of the castle, an ancient bust in an underground lapidarium, a portrait and a chest completely buried under the collapsed concrete building, as well as a heavy wayside shrine with an ancient and very rare fresco, require the assistance of the Rescue and Recovery Unit with heavy equipment. Finally, a concept for the evacuation on the third day is to be discussed and experts from the Lazio Crisis Unit and the Carabinieri share their experiences from real scenarios of the Italian earthquake series since 2016.

The third day of the exercise begins with the arrival of the Rescue and Recovery Unit for the recovery of cultural property and the usual procedures on arrival in a crisis area. The cultural heritage protection experts brief the unit commander and take over their assigned locations.
By working in parallel at several locations, the teams are able to ensure the rapid recovery of cultural property and recover the most important pieces of the Imperial Family's collection and memorabilia. Among the objects recovered is the archive of the former Imperial Family, which was damaged by fire during the rescue operation. The fire was quickly extinguished by the fire brigade, but the wet archives need to be treated by experts. The recovered items were packed on site and taken to the inventory station.

The objectives of the exercise are to realistically develop and test emergency and evacuation measures for movable cultural property, to improve risk assessment skills, to work in crisis teams and to gain practical expertise in the recovery of cultural property. Both the cultural property protection experts and the soldiers of the Austrian Armed Forces benefit from the cooperation, as the knowledge and experience of both sides are actively incorporated into the exercise.

The evacuation exercise TRAISMAUER16 is part of the Summer School 2016. The focus is on the Stadtmuseum, whose archaeological collection is housed in the Wiener Tor. During the Summer School, the participants developed an evacuation plan for the Stadtmuseum Traismauer, which is now to be tested in practice during the evacuation exercise in cooperation with soldiers from the Lower Austrian Military Command and Cultural Heritage Protection Experts from the Austrian Armed Forces.
The mock fire in the Wiener Tor has already been extinguished by the Traismauer Fire Brigade. Some of the collection's artefacts are to be evacuated from the Wiener Tor, whose statics have been affected by the fire-fighting operation, and subsequently stabilised. The most valuable archaeological objects are taken to Traismauer Castle, cleaned, repacked and stored in a special depot.