Czechs eager to add more treasures to UNESCO list
The Czech Republic has seventeen Czech wonders of the world listed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. In addition, there are nine entries relating to folk traditions that are part of the list of intangible cultural heritage. Given the small size of our country, this is a considerable achievement, yet the Czech Republic is keen to add more monuments to the UNESCO family. Which sites are applying for a place on the prestigious UNESCO list?
UNESCO Indicative List
The inscription of each monument or intangible tradition is usually the result of many years of effort, involving detailed nominations and complex evaluation processes. The first step in getting a monument onto the preliminary or indicative list is to have it included on this list. This process is not internationally assessed and is entirely up to the country concerned to decide which sites to include on the list. Monuments designated for inscription on the World Heritage List are considered significant examples of cultural and natural heritage that we should pass on to future generations.
However, inscription on the Tentative List has its own specific features: for example, before a site can be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List, it must be on the Tentative List for at least one year. Nevertheless, being included on this list does not guarantee that a site will ever become part of UNESCO. The list changes, and some sites may be removed from it while others may be added. The Tentative List is also important for other states party to the World Heritage Convention, which need comparative studies for joint nominations of similar types of sites.
This rule also applies to some Czech monuments. An example is the Jizerské hory Beech Forests National Nature Reserve, which became the first Czech UNESCO natural monument in July 2021. At the same time, it is part of a monument that was inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2007 under the name Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Areas of Europe. This inscription protects the forests of primeval beech stands in several European countries. In addition to the Czech Republic and Romania, this monument also belongs to Albania, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Italy, Croatia, North Macedonia, Austria, Poland, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Ukraine.
In the same year, eleven spa towns in Europe were awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. The international project Great Spas of Europe includes the German towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Ems and Bad Kissingen, the Belgian town of Spa, Vichy in France, Montecatini Terme in Italy, Baden near Vienna in Austria and the City of Bath in England, three well-known towns from the West Bohemian spa triangle, namely Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně and Františkovy Lázně. Together with Germany, the Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří mining region and several traditions such as falconry, puppetry, blueprint production, handmade glass production and rafting have also been successfully inscribed on the UNESCO list as intangible cultural heritage.
A hot candidate for UNESCO inscription: international nomination of handmade paper mills
According to the Ministry of Culture, it is not possible to determine exactly which site from the UNESCO indicative lists is closest to being inscribed. We can say that, despite their beauty, those candidates that can offer something unique, rather than, for example, historic city centres or religious monuments, have a better chance of being inscribed. An example is the handmade paper mill in Velké Losiny, founded at the end of the 16th century on the estate of the Moravian family of the Lords of Žerotín, which has a chance to become part of a transnational nomination. The phenomenon of European handmade paper production includes six European paper mills that existed from the 16th to the early 20th century. In addition to the Velké Losiny paper mill, these are the German paper mills in Homburg and Niederzwönitz, the Italian paper mill in Pescia, the Polish paper mill in Duszniki-Zdrój and the Spanish paper mill in Capellades.
Today, there are thousands of modern paper mills around the world that use wood to produce paper using machine technology. According to UNESCO, only 25 traditional paper mills from the era of handmade paper production have been preserved, serving both production and museum functions. In this regard, it is worth mentioning that UNESCO has not yet inscribed any historical paper mills. Only two such sites are currently on the list: the pulp and paper mill from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries in Verla, Finland, which was inscribed in 1996, and the Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex in Antwerp (Belgium), which includes a Renaissance printing house, inscribed since 2005.
Other candidates from the tentative list
The Třeboň Pond System, a network of historic ponds around the town of Třeboň, known for its successful tradition of fish farming, also relies on the aforementioned “something unique”. Here you will find a number of monuments to Renaissance fish farmers, which are hard to find anywhere else in Europe – and this is precisely what could appeal to UNESCO.
The monuments of Great Moravia, which the Czech Republic proposed together with Slovakia, are also in a good position. Here, the inscription would concern the Slavic fortified settlement in Mikulčice and the Church of St. Margaret of Antioch in Kopčany. This originally Romanesque church, later modified into a Gothic style, was probably built in the 9th century and is the best-preserved monument of the early medieval Slavic state known as Great Moravia.
Certainly, other sites on the tentative list also deserve a chance to be inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. These include the Ještěd mountain hotel and transmitter, the fortified town of Terezín, and the beautiful Renaissance buildings in Slavonice. However, the candidates do not end there: Czechs would also like to see Braun’s Nativity Scene near Kuks, a unique outdoor gallery of Baroque sculptures by Matyáš Bernard Braun, the Luhačovice Spa, Kateřina Cave and Punkevní Cave in the Moravian Karst Protected Landscape Area, and the rock towns of Bohemian Paradise on the UNESCO list.
The preliminary list of candidates for UNESCO status also includes the Old Wastewater Treatment Plant in Prague-Bubeneč and the majestic Gothic castle of Karlštejn. Industrial complexes, which are already notable for their size, also have a chance. Industrial monuments in Ostrava are applying for inclusion, such as the historic Dolní Vítkovice complex with its preserved coal mines, coking plants and blast furnaces, where the entire technology of iron and steel production has been preserved, Landek Park, the former Anselm mine complex, and the Michal Mine.
Is Prague set for expansion?
It may happen that the monument, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992 under the name Historic Centre of Prague, will “see” another expansion. In 2010, UNESCO confirmed that the inscription also applies to Průhonice Park, which is a significant work of 19th-century garden architecture. The capital city is now seeking to add new sites located outside the historic centre of Prague, specifically Müller’s Villa, Břevnov Monastery and Hvězda Summer Palace with its adjacent game reserve.
