Published 06 Nov 2025

Cross-border creativity: Bulgaria and Croatia reimagine heritage through EHL Call for Projects 2024 – Awarded Project on youth audio-guides

Young Voices, Ancient Wisdom, an EHL Call for Projects 2024 – Awarded Project, concluded in Haskovo with the launch of three youth-created audio guides inspired by Thracian and Odrysian heritage. The project connected young people from Bulgaria and Croatia, showcased their creative process, and produced a practical manual to help organisations replicate this youth-driven model.
  
Discover the EHL Site Thracian Art in Eastern Rhodopes: Aleksandrovo Tomb
  

On 17 November 2025, the Museum Center of Thracian Art in Eastern Rhodope Mountain hosted the closing event of “Young Voices, Ancient Wisdom”, an EHL Call for Projects 2024 – Awarded Project developed in partnership with Vučedol Culture Museum and Archaeological Site. What began as a plan to create a single youth-produced audio guide evolved into something far more ambitious. 

Through youth focus groups held in both countries, participants independently imagined a more dynamic format: three short, immersive audio guides, each narrated from a fictional yet historically grounded perspective. The characters—Queen Talisena, the god Perkon, and Dimitar, a young man searching for his roots—were fully conceptualised by the young participants and inspired by the culture, mythology, and research surrounding the Odrysian Kingdom. 
All guides were recorded in Bulgarian, English, and French, designed primarily for young audiences but compelling for listeners of all ages. 

The closing event connected young participants from Bulgaria and Croatia, who explored the final guides, exchanged ideas, and met museum professionals and representatives from local and regional institutions. A small exhibition, “Behind the Curtain”, presented moments from the creative process, celebrating a project that was 90% youth-led and youth-executed. 

One unexpected long-term outcome of the project is a short “how-to” manual, designed to help other organisations across the EHL network replicate this participatory, youth-driven model of heritage interpretation. 

Local media and institutional channels covered the event widely. Feedback from visitors aged 15 to 60 described the audio guides as immersive, emotionally engaging, innovative, and capable of capturing young people’s interest. Participants also highlighted the value of the cross-border exchange, which allowed young creators to connect, collaborate, and build meaningful relationships.