European spa towns jointly request inclusion in UNESCO

Paris - Today, European spa towns, including three from the Czech Republic, submitted an application for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List at the Czech Embassy in Paris. This marked the culmination of an eight-year preparation process. Representatives from all 11 cities of the countries, including Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, and Františkovy Lázně, as well as ambassadors from all seven concerned European countries, participated in the documentation handover.

The application under the joint title Great Spas of Europe is being pursued by 11 European spa towns, with the most representatives from the Czech Republic and Germany. In addition to Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně, and Františkovy Lázně, the joint list includes the German cities of Baden-Baden, Bad Ems, and Bad Kissingen, the Belgian city of Spa, the French Vichy, the Italian Montecatini Terme, the Austrian city of Baden near Vienna, and the City of Bath in England.

Michal Urban, the chair of the international working group that prepared the documentation, believes that the application has a significant chance of success. However, the cities now face the most crucial stage of the process, which will involve UNESCO's own assessment of the application and its expert organization ICOMOS. "We have completed an important step, but a lot of work lies ahead of us," Urban noted.

The cities must now submit more specific management plans by the end of April, and in the fall, the candidate spas will be visited by an expert and evaluation delegation from ICOMOS, the expert organization of UNESCO. The actual listing will then be voted on at the end of June and the beginning of July next year at the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting. Ideally, the Great Spas of Europe will be inscribed on the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List by mid-2020.

The Great Spas of Europe are, according to the proposers, a testament to the phenomenon of European spa culture, which flourished especially from the 18th century to the 1930s. As places for meeting people from across Europe, they held immense importance for the democratization of European society.