"The positive vote concludes a period of intensive and creative efforts by the Kuldīga Municipal Council and all the involved municipal authorities over more than 20 years to set the scene for the old town to be put on the UNESCO World Heritage List of cultural properties. That included reconditioning of, and research on cultural heritage sites, setting up the Kuldīga Restoration Centre, as well as educating the public in heritage matters," said a release from the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming the decision.
🔴BREAKING!
— UNESCO 🏛️ #Education #Sciences #Culture 🇺🇳 (@UNESCO) September 17, 2023
New inscription on the @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List: Old town of Kuldīga, #Latvia 🇱🇻. Bravo! 👏👏
➡️ https://t.co/69Xvi4BtYv #45WHC pic.twitter.com/Ks413s6cQ2
The Latvian delegation comprising representatives from the Ministry of Culture, Kuldīga Municipal Council, and the National Cultural Heritage Administration is headed by Indulis Ābelis, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Latvia to the OECD and UNESCO.
“I am truly proud that our Kuldīga is joining the representative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. It is an acknowledgement to all of us, but first of all to the city and its people for their tireless work day after day to study, learn, build and take care of their Kuldīga,” Ābelis said.
Inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List means that the unique value of the old town of Kuldīga has been recognised and that Kuldīga has been marked on the world map as an important cultural heritage site. It also means substantial further work to adequately protect and preserve that value in line with the high standards of UNESCO.
As recently reported by LSM, hopes had been high in Kuldīga that a positive decision would be made.
Besides Kuldīga, the Committee examined 50 other nominations made by the governments of other countries concerning inscription of sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
