MINSK, 9 January (BelTA) - More than 5,500 heritage sites have the status of historical and cultural value in Belarus, BelTA learnt from the Culture Ministry.
As of 1 January 2017 the state list of historical and cultural values of the Republic of Belarus included 5,552 heritage sites. Of them 5,352 are the sites having the status of tangible immovable historical and cultural value, 89 are the sites having the status of tangible movable historical and cultural values and 111 are intangible expressions of human creativity.
For preservation and popularization of the Belarusian culture in the world, increasing the presence of Belarusian sites in the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage List, activities are carried out to prepare the files for inclusion into the UNESCO World Heritage List.
The state program “Culture of Belarus" designed to run in 2016-2020 provides for the measures to draw up the nomination files. Belarus is set to submit at least 5 files to the World Heritage Center by 2020.
In 2016 Belarus presented the file “Celebration in Honor of the Budslau Icon of Our Lady (Budslau Fest)” for the inclusion into the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Last year the UNESCO specialists examined this element of the Belarusian intangible culture and submitted their conclusions to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee.
Currently, work is underway on two files for inclusion into the UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage List, namely “Tangible embodiment of the spiritual heritage of St. Euphrosyne of Polotsk on the example of Transfiguration Church in Polotsk, Vitebsk Oblast" and “The Augustow Canal, a work of man and nature on the territories of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Poland.” The file to nominate Kalozha (Boris and Gleb) Church on the UNESCO World Heritage List will be ready in 2017-2018. The documents on religious defense structures in Synkovichi (Zelva District, Grodno Oblast), Murovanka (Shchuchin District, Grodno Oblast), Kamai (Postavy District, Vitebsk Oblast) will be prepared in 2018-2019. Another file on the cross-border site “Religious Wooden Architecture of the 16th-19th centuries in Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland” will be ready in 2019-2020.
Today the UNESCO World Heritage List includes the following Belarusian sites: Mir Castle in Grodno (inscribed in 2000), a residential castle of the Radziwill family in Nesvizh, Minsk Oblast (2005). Belarus is also represented in the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Struve Geodetic Arc (2005) and with its Belovezhskaya Pushcha (1992, 2014).
The Belarusian Culture Ministry cooperates with the Council of Europe in the COMUS (Community-Led Urban Strategies in Historic Towns) project. The city of Mstislavl, Mogilev Oblast, is part of the project. Belarus also takes a regular part in the Council of Europe's European Heritage Days.
According to the ministry, in December 2016 restoration works were completed on the Workers of Belarus sculpture in the Republic of Belarus Pavilion in the Exhibition of Economic Achievements (VDNKh) in Moscow. This year works will be continued to restore the sculptural compositions Red Army Soldier and Belarusian Partisan, Belarusian Emblem Surrounded with Banners, and chandeliers of the Belarusian pavilion at Moscow's VDNKh.
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