Description
The historical Avas is one of the most interesting values of Miskolc, also it was and it is the central point of the community life. The built and natural environment which had hundreds of years of history is getting worse. The neglected buildings slowly crumbles, the environment is trashy, most of the cellars have many unidentified and uncharted passage that without careful maintenance can be potential dangers for citizens nearby. The objective of the project is to positively change the public opinion about the area. Moreover, the former entertainment district becomes popular again thus citizens and tourists will more likely visit it. A community-cultural program series - titled open cellars starts - with different activities like exhibitions, workshops, wine-journey study mission, setting up photo and video documentations, collecting garbage, gardening and planting. The target group consists of civic organizations and citizens who consider the project important, volunteer students who will take part in a research, and disadvantaged inhabitants.
Summary of project results
The historic Avas is one of the most adventurous and valuable places of Miskolc city, earlier it was one of the main meeting points of the vibrant local community life, and it should be that for a long time too. Unfortunately this very old unique natural and built environment is getting to be ruined. The abandoned buildings are getting to be ruined, and the environment is very dirty (only a few minutes away from the downtown), most of the cellars here are dangerous mainly due to their unknown routes under the ground. These cellars became abandoned, and also the culture related to wine and grape became unknown here. The project promoter wanted to save this place, neighbourhood of Miskolc, and wanted to revive the vibrant community life, and culture of wine producing which were used to be well known here some 100 years ago. For these purposes they made a thorough community development process, and organized various programs (garbage collection, planting flowers, strategic planning workshops for mapping local needs and attributes and deciding development trends) in order to build a new image for this neighbourhood. The project promoter organized so called “walks” in the neighbourhood where the participants had the opportunity to get to know the most valuable places of Avas. As most of the programs were implemented with active involvement of volunteers, local inhabitants were mobilized into these processes, mainly through garbage collection and flower planting. Members of local community of Avas were involved to make their environment nicer, and this contributed to the sustainability of the project as well, as after the project closure they continue these activities.
Summary of bilateral results