Dresden, Dec 11 (CTK) – Saxony Interior Minister Markus Ulbig and Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman signed a joint nomination of the cultural landscape of the Saxony-Czech Erzgebirge/Krusnohori (Ore Mountains) for UNESCO-listing on Monday, Culture Ministry spokeswoman Simona Cigankova has told CTK.
Saxony and the Czech Republic have submitted the application for the second time.
They have prepared the joint nomination since 2011. Not only state bodies did participate in the process, but also heritage protection authorities, regions, experts and municipalities from both countries.
Herman thanked all of them for their effort during the official signing of the nomination.
Ulbig said he was convinced that the joint German-Czech bid would be successful.
The Czech Republic and Germany are to submit the application to UNESCO next year. Then the UNESCO intergovernmental committee will debate it at its meeting in 2019.
The Czech Republic and Saxony withdrew their previous nomination on a recommendation of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in 2014 since the commissioners had raised objections to the administrative formalities of the German party of the project. This is why the application was rewritten.
Saxony proposed the idea of nominating selected mining sights for the UNESCO list in 1998. The Czech Usti (north Bohemia) region with its mining towns of Hora Svate Kateriny, Krupka, Cinovec and Vysluni and the Karlovy Vary (west Bohemia) region with the towns of Bozi Dar, Jachymov and Ostrov joined the project some ten years later.
Twelve Czech monuments that have entered the UNESCO list of world heritage so far.
The first ones were the historical centres of Prague, Cesky Krumlov, south Bohemia, and Telc, south Moravia, all listed in 1992, followed by the Renaissance chateau in Litomysl, east Bohemia, the south Bohemian village of Holasovice, the chateau and gardens in Kromeriz, south Moravia, the centre of Kutna Hora together with St Barbara Cathedral, central Bohemia, the pilgrim church of St John Nepomucen at Zelena hora at Zdar nad Sazavou, south Moravia, the chateau and garden complex of Lednice and Valtice, south Moravia, the Trinity baroque column in Olomouc, north Moravia, the villa Tugendhat in Brno, south Moravia, listed in 2001 and the Jewish Town and St Prokopius Basilica in Trebic, south Moravia, in 2003.
UNESCO commissioners have been assessing the latest Czech nomination of Zatec, north Bohemia, as the town of hops, for almost a year. The final decision on it is to be made in 2018.
