Participants of the UNESCO cooperation network summer school learn about the energy heritage
July 1, 2019
On 28 June, the participants of the summer school under the cooperation network of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO visited the Museum of Energy of Latvenergo Group and Kegums Hydropower Plant.
Kegums Power Plant is an important historical structure in Latvia, which was captured by the photographer and documentary filmmaker Eduards Kraucs (1898–1977) during its construction from 1936 to 1940, creating a collection of glass plate photo negatives. It is included in the Latvian National Register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.
Ina Lastovecka, Head of the Museum of Energy of Latvenergo AS: "It is pleasing and at the same time only natural that the participants of the summer school under the cooperation network of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO can see and get to know the historical heritage left by Eduards Kraucsat the Museum of Energy. It is our national wealth and value which we are proud of, showing and telling about the historical aspects of its formation and its inclusion on the UNESCO heritage list".
The participants of the summer school toured the digital exhibition Kegums Hydropower Plant in the Photographs by Eduards Kraucs.
The achievements of the photographer and documentary filmmaker Eduards Kraucs (1898–1977) are very important in the context of Latvian industrial history. From 1936 to 1940, E. Kraucs immortalised the construction of Kegums Power Plant. The photographic fixation of the construction work took place once a week, resulting in 1,736 glass plate photo negatives. The collection is the only photographic documentation of such size of a building project in Europe known so far. The museum holds a total of 11,000 photographs of the construction of Kegums HPP, collected in 53 albums.
At the Museum of Energy, the participants of the summer school watched the documentary How Kegums Power Plant Was Built, created using the memoirs of Kārlis Dumbrājs and the newsreels filmed by Eduards Kraucs. In 1939, K. Dumbrājs participated in the construction of Kegums Hydropower Plant, carrying out the assembly of generators, and left important memoirs and photographs of that time and his work.
The summer school under the cooperation network of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO is taking place in Jekabpils from 26 to 28 June. Its participants include members of the Storytelling Library network, teachers of the UNESCO Associated School Network and Baltic Sea Project, representatives of memory institutions involved in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme as well as UNESCO Departments located at universities in all regions of Latvia. The aim of the summer school is to broaden the knowledge of significant cultural, environmental and societal challenges in Latvia and the world in the context of UNESCO programmes as well as to strengthen the synergy of the networks of the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO for the promotion of lifelong learning and preservation of cultural and environmental heritage.