The Cultural Heritage Agency has allocated € 154 million in subsidies this year for the maintenance of national monuments. Of this, € 44.5 million went to national monuments with a residential function through the Maintenance Subsidy for Residential National Monuments (hereinafter: residential subsidy) and € 109.5 million to other national monuments through the Subsidy Scheme for the Maintenance of Monuments (hereinafter: maintenance subsidy).
Residential Subsidy
Private owners of national monuments with a residential function can apply for subsidies for maintenance and restoration costs incurred in the previous calendar year annually from March 1 to April 30. The subsidy amounts to a maximum of 38% of the eligible costs.
This year, the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE) was able to honor 7,880 applications for the residential subsidy for a total of € 44.5 million. This year, the maximum percentage of 38% could also be applied. In 184 cases, the applicant did not receive a subsidy, for example, because there was no residential function or because the application was insufficiently substantiated.
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Maintenance Subsidy
The maintenance subsidy is intended for archaeological, green, and built national monuments that are not classified as residential buildings. Owners can apply for subsidies for regular maintenance costs based on a six-year maintenance plan annually between February 1 and March 31. For built and green monuments, the subsidy amounts to a maximum of 50% of the eligible maintenance costs, and for archaeological monuments, a maximum of 80%.
The RCE has provided € 109.5 million in subsidies this year from the maintenance subsidy for 2,887 national monuments. Applications were submitted for 3,313 monuments. 153 of these were rejected, for example, because the application was submitted outside the deadline or because it did not concern a national monument. Additionally, applications for 273 monuments were rejected because the subsidy ceiling had been reached.
Extra Measures
This year, several extra measures have been taken to limit the extent of budgetary rejections. To ensure that as many applicants as possible actually receive subsidies, it was decided to lower the subsidy percentages for built and green monuments by 10%. The budget for the maintenance subsidy has also been increased by € 15.8 million. This has reduced the extent of budgetary rejections from € 33.9 million to € 22.1 million.
In the document Overview of Maintenance Subsidy (Sim) 2025 below, you can see the complete list of allocations and budgetary rejections. On our webpage How the maintenance subsidy is distributed, the distribution system is explained. At the end of September, the figures from this application round will be added to the information on the Heritage Monitor.
