On Wednesday, 28 October 2026, Dr. sc. ETH Britta Hentschel was invited to give a keynote presentation at the cross-border symposium «Our Cultural Landscape. Our Shared Cultural Heritage» in Burghausen, Upper Bavaria, and Hochburg-Ach, Upper Austria. The event was hosted by Heimatverein Burghausen an der Salzach e.V., Hochburg Acher Zukunft, an association for village development, and the municipalities on both sides of the River Salzach. The aim was to provide a platform for discussing the future of shared cultural landscapes and the significance of historic places with experts from public administration and the construction sector.

Other speakers included Dr Hans Peter Jeschke, lecturer at the European University Viadrina and former UNESCO coordinator, who spoke on «Cultural Landscapes as Designed Living Environments»; Vinzenz Dufter, responsible for architectural culture at the Bavarian Association for Heritage Preservation, who addressed «Vibrant Village and Town Centres»; and art historian Beate Dandler, a freelance contributor to the Austrian Federal Monuments Authority, who discussed «Cultural Heritage in Transition». In her presentation, «Instruments for Cultural Heritage Protection», Britta Hentschel focused particularly on the Swiss Federal Inventory of Heritage Sites (ISOS), which identifies settlements of national importance worthy of protection and serves as a basis for high-quality planning and conservation measures.

The presentations were followed by a screening of the documentary «Wirtshaussterben? Wirtshausleben!», produced by the Haus der Bayerischen Geschichte and featuring Gerhard Polt, at the Ankersaal in Burghausen. Dr Rudolf Neumaier, Managing Director of the Bavarian Association for Heritage Preservation, then moderated a panel discussion entitled «Why Places Matter» with the four speakers. The discussion explored the factors contributing to high-quality architectural culture, approaches to the preservation and development of built heritage, the protection of historic townscapes, embodied energy and sustainability, as reported by the Passauer Neue Presse.