What does peace look like when it’s practiced, not just talked about?

Fifty young history enthusiasts from across Europe gathered in Tuscany to dive into the EUSTORY Experience “Peace in Action” – an immersive learning journey at Rondine Cittadella della Pace. In the “Village of Peace,” dialogue, trust, and intercultural understanding became tools for transforming conflict into cooperation.

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

Activities and Highlights

Immersive Encounters: Peace in Action at Rondine Cittadella della Pace

Facilitated by the team of Rondine Cittadella della Pace

How can we turn conflicts -— from interpersonal tensions to societal divides – into opportunities for understanding and peace? Participants lived this question together in the unique setting of Rondine, the “Village of Peace,” where young people from conflict-affected regions build trust through shared daily life.

In small groups and individual reflections, participants shared personal experiences of conflict, practiced active listening, and developed approaches for turning tensions into constructive action. Together they explored how conflicting perspectives can be transformed into shared futures.

Creative Reflection: Telling Peace Stories Online

Facilitated by Lilit Dabagian, public history practitioner

What does peace mean to you? Taking their insights from discussions and encounters on-site, participants transformed their reflections into Instagram Reels. These short videos – some playful, others deeply reflective – explore themes of social justice,diversity, dialogue, and hope for more peaceful societies.

Diversity

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

Communism in Albania

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

Social Injustice

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

The Power of Language

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

Polarisation

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

War and Volunteering

You are currently viewing placeholder content from Vimeo. To access the actual content, click the button below. Please note that this will result in data being shared with third-party providers.

Further information
Unlock content Accept the required service and unlock the content

Participant Voices

“I take with me an increased respect and understanding for people from other backgrounds, insights into how it is to live in conflict, and inspiration for how I can contribute.”

“If these people can overcome hatred for each other, so can I.”

“I really like the active listening method as it helps to understand someone’s process of thought. I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge that will help me be more respectful in my everyday life.”

Impressions

Four people talking together at a table.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-1
Five people sitting together with a bridge, river, trees, and mountains in the back.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-2
Three people sitting at a table looking at a tablet in a room
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-3-850×570
Young people standing outside and playing a game.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-4-850×570
Many people sitting in chairs in a room.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-5
People sitting in a room and having their hands together (clapping).
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-7-850×570
Two people hugging. View from the back of a room. EUSTORY banner and a person standing in the front.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-8-850×570
Two people sitting and talking in a room.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-9-850×570
Many tables, each with young people sitting around them in a room. TV and plant in the front.
eustory-experience-2025-experience-impressions-10-850×570

Körber-Stiftung/Silvia Baglioni

Partners

Organised by

In cooperation with

Related Summits

Discover more inspiring historical research from young Europeans

NECE Lab: Working with Polarised Groups in Civic Education

How to counter polarisation in youth work? In Sarajevo, civic education specialists, researchers, and activists discussed challenges.

Bosnia: Building bridges, where others see walls

One conversation, one classroom at a time, four activists fight for unity in Bosnia and Herzegovina. How they refuse to give in to division, despite government pressure.

“War and Dreams”– Children’s Drawings from Ukraine

How do children see the war in Ukraine? This is the subject of the digital exhibition “War and Dreams” showing drawings by Ukrainian schoolchildren.

“Being tolerant is and should be hard”

How to deal with violence? Insights from Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee and keyfigure in re-building the island of Utøya after the terror attack in 2011.

“EUSTORY Influenced My Career”

Dr Zdeněk Hazdra, Director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes in Prague, remembered being among the prize winners of the very first Czech History Competition in 2001/2002.he first Czech EUSTORY History Competition in 2000/2001. In 2017, he returned to the Czech National History Competition to honour the prize winners.

“Dialogues to Remember” – EUSTORY Summit 2023

What can conversations about the past teach us about the world we want to build? At the EUSTORY Summit 2023 “Dialogues to Remember”, over 100 young Europeans came together in Prague to explore memory, identity, and Europe’s shared stories.