| Summary: | The presented article is aimed at presenting a few selected examples of small European historic towns whose properly protected cultural heritage considerably contributes to their development in the 21st century. The issue of protection and revalorisation of Polish towns, particularly the smaller ones, is relevant nowadays. Historic heritage seems to be a burden for local authorities and residents because very often they are not aware of how it could contribute to the multidirectional development of their towns. The local inhabitants and authorities of small historic towns in Western European countries respect their heritage much more than Poles, as they associate it with the idea of sustainable development, “place specificity”, and finally, with an opportunity for development, treating cultural heritage as a basis for economic progress and building new and modern infrastructure. It is worth drawing attention here, that sustainable development denotes changing the reality in such a way that the development would optimally satisfy the needs of modern man, without violating the needs of future generations. The testimony to the potential of the cultural heritage of historic towns in the context of their modern development is borne by the towns whose authorities and inhabitants were able to utilise their past for building their future. As examples one could name here French (e.g. Auxerre, Provins,) or German towns (e.g. Heppenheim, Lorsch).
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