You Know Local History Nobody Has Written Down. Here Is How to Share It.

The story of that old farmhouse at the edge of town — who built it, when it burned, who never rebuilt it — is stored nowhere except in the memories of a few people who are getting older. You know this story. And the world needs you to share it.

You Carry Knowledge That Historians Don’t Have

Every town has people like you. People who’ve walked the same streets for decades. Who remember when the corner shop changed hands, what the factory actually made, which building was restored badly and which one beautifully. You know which stories survived on the local radio, which ones live only in family dinners, which ones were nearly lost when the old librarian retired.

This knowledge is valuable precisely because it’s local. You’ve noticed things that never made it into Wikipedia. You photographed the plaque before it faded. You remember the year the architect died, the scandal that closed the museum, the community that gathered there before it became a storage unit. Historians working from archives alone can verify dates and formal histories. But they can’t tell you what the building smelled like, who actually used it, why the locals loved it or abandoned it.

Cultural Heritage Online exists because these stories matter. Not just for tourism. For truth.

We Need Three Concrete Things From You

You don’t have to write a research paper. Start small.

First: photographs. A photo of that street corner as you remember it. A detail of a door, a facade, a sign. Nothing professional required — just honest. We use photographs to verify that places still exist as described, and to give visitors a sense of what they’ll actually see when they arrive. Yours might be the only image of a building before a renovation. Go to /contribute-a-photo/ to upload.

Second: places we’ve missed. Not every heritage site is on a tourist map. The craftsman’s workshop that’s still operating. The house where a notable person was born. The hidden courtyard. The cemetery with interesting monuments. These locations have history, often documented nowhere but in the knowledge of people who live there. Visit /proponi/ and tell us what we’re missing.

Third: events that matter locally. Festivals, exhibitions, commemorations, walking tours that celebrate heritage. These happen constantly — and they’re usually organized by the very people who care most about their town’s history. If you’re organizing something, or you know of something worth documenting, share it. We’ll help get it in front of people planning visits.

What a Good Contribution Looks Like

Here’s a real example. A woman in Ravenna noticed that the Byzantine church she visited every year was celebrating its restoration anniversary. Most tourism sites wouldn’t know it happened. But she took a photo of the completion plaque, wrote three sentences about why the restoration mattered (the original mosaics had cracked), and submitted it as a place update. That information now appears on our map. Visitors planning a trip see not just “here’s a church” but “this specific restoration happened in 2019, and here’s what was fixed.” The information changes the visit.

Another contributor photographed the Art Nouveau details on a palazzo in Naples that guides always rush past. A single close-up image of the tilework. He added the architect’s name (from a plaque in the entryway) and one sentence about the building’s history. Today, anyone visiting understands what they’re looking at — and why it matters. That’s what moves a place from being a landmark you pass to a place you actually understand.

You don’t need to be a historian. You need to care about accuracy and add what you actually know. Names, dates, context, images, links to sources if you have them. That’s it.

What Happens to Your Contribution

When you submit a photo or a place, it goes through a quick verification process. We check facts against public sources, ensure the location is real, and confirm photographs actually show what you’ve described. This usually takes a few days.

Then it goes live on our map. It appears in city guides. If it’s significant enough, it gets featured in our magazine or in email guides we send to visitors planning trips. Your contribution reaches thousands of people — some planning their first visit to your town, others researching its heritage for academic work, others just curious about places they’ve never explored.

You get an author credit. A badge on your profile showing you’re a contributor. And something harder to measure: you’ve made your town’s history more complete and more findable. Ten years from now, someone might discover a heritage site because of your photo. They might visit because you documented it. They might even protect it because they understand its value — something they learned from your contribution.

How to Start Right Now

You don’t need permission. You don’t need expertise. Create a free CHO Ambassador profile at culturalheritageonline.com/ambassador. It takes three minutes.

Then choose your entry point. If you have a photograph you’ve been meaning to share, go to /contribute-a-photo/. Upload it. Add a sentence about what it shows and why you took it.

If you know a place that should be on the map, visit /proponi/. Fill in what you know: the name, approximate location, what it is, why it matters. We’ll handle the verification and research from there.

If you’re organizing a heritage event or know of one worth documenting, submit that too. Every piece of information you contribute strengthens the map — and the knowledge your town leaves behind.