Luhačovice will not be inscribed on the UNESCO list

Quebec (Canada) - A total of 27 natural and cultural sites have been added this year by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the prestigious list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Among the 47 sites whose nominations were assessed in recent days by the relevant committee of the world organization in Quebec, Canada, were Luhačovice with its collection of buildings designed by architect Dušan Jurkovič. However, according to the overview published on UNESCO's website, they apparently were not successful.
    The UNESCO committee decided that this year’s list of World Cultural Heritage will include, for example, wooden churches from the 16th to 18th centuries located in eastern Slovakia in the Carpathian region. Among them are Roman Catholic churches in Hervartov and Tvrdošín, Evangelical ones in Kežmarok, Leštiny, and Hronsek, and Greek Catholic ones in Bodružal, Ladomírová, and Ruská Bystrá. These unique wooden structures document the contact between Western and Eastern cultures and the intersection of folk and professional construction. The fortress in Komárno also nominated by Slovakia was considered for the list.
    New additions to the list include, for example, the historic center of San Marino and Monte Titano, the Italian cities of Mantua and Sabbionetta, and the plain around the Croatian city of Stari Grad, an area that has hardly changed since Greek colonization in the fourth century.
    The border fortifications in France, built by military architect Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban during the reign of Louis XIV, have also become World Cultural Heritage, as well as the well-preserved temple of Preah Vihear in Cambodia from the first half of the 11th century, a group of six modernist houses in Berlin, and the unique high-altitude Rhaetian Railway in Switzerland.
    This year, the list of natural monuments has also been enriched by the biosphere reserve of the migratory monarch butterflies in Mexico. These butterflies use a unique navigational mechanism that helps them find their way on the nearly 8000-kilometer journey from Canada to their wintering grounds in Mexico. The steppe and lake area in northern Kazakhstan and the volcanic island of Surtsey near Iceland have also been designated as natural monuments.
    The UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage list now includes 878 sites in 145 countries.
    The Czech Republic has 12 sites on this list, while Slovakia now has six. Among the Czech sites previously inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list are the historic cores of Telč, Český Krumlov, and Prague, as well as the Church of St. John of Nepomuk at Zelená Hora in Žďár nad Sázavou.
    By being inscribed, the sites receive the protection of this world cultural organization.