C O N T E X T 1 4 9 : M A Y 2 0 1 7 35 one time. Many of the palaces remain incomplete and unoccupied – the permanent residents preferring to live in the modest, traditional, one-to-two-hundred-year-old, single-storey cottages in their curtilage. The context for my visit to Soroca was the joint Council of Europe/European Union project COMUS (Community-led Urban Strategies in HistoricTowns).2 This initiative seeks to stimulate social and economic development by enhancing cultural heritage in historic towns in five countries, all peripheral to the European Union itself: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. It is related to the Council of Europe’s 2005 Framework Convention on theValue of Cultural Heritage for Society (better known as the Faro Convention), which recognises ‘the need to put people and human values at the centre of an enlarged and cross-disciplinary concept of cultural heritage’, and ‘to involve everyone in society in the ongoing process of defining and managing cultural heritage’. Cultural diversity and inclusion are fundamental to this agenda, as they are to parallel United Nations’ programmes. One of the supposed barriers to engaging with representatives of the Romani is that they are not in the habit of attending meetings outside their own communities; this also applies to other minority groups. My tactic in Soroca was simple: to solicit an invitation to the palace of the Roma baron, where the welcome was generous and warm. Of his many concerns, one is to challenge prejudices: his community is self-regulated; itinerant street traders and beggars, for example, are not tolerated in the town. Soroca has the ambition to become a tourist destination: bespoke, not mass. In the conventional sense, its heritage assets are not numerous, and it is not easy to access.The palaces of the Roma Hill are a singular, albeit modern, asset. Roma hospitality and cuisine, coupled with traditional costume, music and dance, would be an exceptional way to present this minority community, both within the setting of this border town and to national and international audiences. A novel visitor experience for UK heritage professionals? References 2 COMUS website: http:// pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/ comus Dennis Rodwell, an architect-planner, is a consultant in cultural heritage and sustainable urban development. Many of the permanent residents prefer to live in modest, single-storey cottages, leaving their palaces incomplete and unoccupied.
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