The city of Cremona, which is home to the ‘Traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona’, inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, was one of the world’s most affected regions in the first wave of the COVID 19 pandemic. Due to containment measures, traditional violinmakers were not allowed to enter their workshops, thereby impairing the continuity and transmission of their traditional know how. In response to the existing safeguarding challenges, which were further worsened by the pandemic, the City of Cremona called upon the entire local heritage community to help identifying the best strategies to safeguard the traditional violin making. In close cooperation with UNESCO, the Italian Ministry of Culture and the Lombardy Region, the city developed a series of capacity-building activities, which will be launched during a webinar on 10 Mai 2021: ‘Developing safeguarding plans for the traditional violin craftsmanship in Cremona’.