Protecting the cultural property of religious communities during war

The Church of Sweden and total defense planning

Bibliographic Data

ID4283056
AuthorsMattias Legnér (0000-0003-0870-390X, Uppsala University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume30
Issue3
Pages319-339
Publication date2023-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Cultural Property (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0940-7391 • E-ISSN: 1465-7317
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0940739124000043
OpenAlexW4393008418
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited13

Even though places of worship are protected by the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, they often become targets. To safeguard the cultural property of religious communities, it is necessary to plan for wartime protection under peaceful conditions, but studies of how this planning was conducted after 1945 are largely missing. This Article compares how the cultural property of the Church of Sweden (Lutheran) has been planned for protection up until 2023. Cultural property protection was first introduced in World War II, but the Church had to plan and carry out most protective measures without state support. During the Cold War, a system for protecting movable property was developed that lasted until it was replaced in the 1980s by cultural protection plans that employed a more holistic approach to risk mitigation in peace as well as in war. Finally, the recent development and future challenges are discussed in relation to the 1954 Hague Convention and the reconstruction of a Swedish total defense due to the Russo-Ukrainian War

Cultural heritage · Cultural property · Epistemology · Political science · Property (philosophy · Archaeological Research and Protection · Cambodian History and Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies

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