Other events in Baltic States

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 06:35

Kaunas' Modernist architecture added to UNESCO's tentative list

BC, Vilnius, 11.01.2017.Print version

Kaunas' Modernist architecture of the interwar period on Tuesday was included into UNESCO's World Heritage Tentative List, informs LETA/BNS.


Renata Vaicekonyte-Kepezinskiene, heritage program coordinator at the Lithuanian National Commission for UNESCO, described this decision as a successful up first step for Lithuania's second-biggest city toward the World Heritage List.


"This is the first step and a successful one. It is opening the way for the member state to prepare a nomination, a serious application to the World Heritage List," she told.


At this stage, an application is evaluated based on formal criteria to ensure that it meets the technical requirements. Lithuania will then be able to start preparing its nomination to the World Heritage List, a process that takes at least two years, and usually more, to complete, Vaicekonyte-Kepezinskiene said.


Kaunas' Modernism formed in the 1930s when the city was the provisional capital of Lithuania, whose historic capital Vilnius was under Polish occupation. Several tens of its buildings are exceptional examples of Modernist architecture.


The Tentative List is a list of sites that countries intend to nominate to the World Heritage List. The other Lithuanian site on the Tentative List is the Historical National Park of Trakai.


Lithuania currently has four sites on the World Heritage List, including the Vilnius Historic Center, the Kernave Archaeological Site, the Curonian Spit and the Struve Geodetic Arc.





Search site