This interpretive study of museums, seen as institutions engaged in the support and diffusion of civilizational programs, is based on research carried out with an analytical framework developed specifically to grasp the processes of heritage Europeanization. The framework consists of seven key qualities which are applied to numerous cases from more than thirty museums in Poland and Sweden: with progress, standing for the linearity of the museum’s storytelling, utility signifying the important functions of heritage, dignity being a central concept for civilization and the diversity which compliments it. The checklist also incorporates inclusion as the main rule for social politics strengthening democratic governance, while all of the symbolic resources at play are seen as the domain of narrativity requiring interpretation.