A celebration ceremony for his registration was held today Zagori in its World Heritage List UNESCO. Zagori, it’s the 19thTHE registration of a Greek monument in the UNESCO List and the first cultural asset of Greece, as a cultural landscape. The effort to compile Zagori’s nomination file began in 2014, with the Minister of Culture, Konstantinos Tasoula, and Secretary General, Lina Mendoni. From 2015 to 2019 there was no progress. In September 2019, from Vitsa, the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis gave the trigger for the preparation of the application for the registration of Zagori through the Ministry of Culture. The official ceremony was scheduled for yesterday, in the presence of the Prime Minister. Kyriakos Mitsotakis arrived in Vytsa yesterday, but the event was postponed due to heavy rain.
The opening of the sign for the registration of Zagori in the UNESCO World Heritage List was carried out, on Sunday, by the Speaker of the Parliament Constantinos Tassoulas and the Minister of Culture Linas Mendonis, in the presence of the Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the Regional Governor Epirus Alexandros Kahrimanis, the Mayor of Zagori Giorgos Soukovelos and many residents of the area.
The Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, in her speech, referring to the history of the effort, with the successful completion of the registration of Zagori, in the UNESCO World List, said: “Yesterday, the Prime Minister, with his presence here, wanted to seal the successful first step, the registration of Zagori in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
This is what we celebrate today. In September 2019, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis chose this square, in Vitsa, in the center of Zagori, to tell all of you, the people of Zagori, that his government, through the Ministry of Culture, will make every effort to that Zagori will be registered in the most requested list of human culture, in the World Heritage list UNESCO. Zagori is the first cultural asset of our country to be registered as a cultural landscape. Zagori is the first and newest monument in our country, among 19 registered monuments. Zagori is the most developed spatial registration in Greece, because it includes 46 settlements and occupies the entire Municipality”.
The nomination file drawn up by YPPO, in collaboration with the Region of Epirus and the Municipality of Zagori, the product of the systematic work of a large multidisciplinary team, highlights the special physiognomy of the region’s architecture as a result of human interaction. and nature, the reality of place and landscape.
As Lina Mendoni said, “In order to reach the registration, in September, in Riyadh, the help and efforts of many people are needed. The executives of the Ministry of Culture work closely, hard and way with executives and collaborators of the Region, the Municipality and in full harmony and communication with the Permanent Greek Delegation. To the many people who worked hard to achieve a happy ending, we owe thanks and just praise.”
Then the Minister of Culture told how to deal with Zagori from here on out. “It is wrong to treat Zagori as a static monument. Zagori, above all, is its people, who must live here to preserve the element, which UNESCO examined and included Zagori: Its authenticity, which is not ensured by the museum method in a living place. Reliability is ensured, from the moment that people not only want to live in Zagori, but try to return to Zagori, to work, to live, focusing on the principles and values ​​that created it.
The state, the state, the regional self-government, the local self-government, all of us, have an obligation, with full protection, which we must ensure forever, to preserve the special elements that are in Zagori. , to prepare a strategic plan for sustainable development. And what is the key to sustainable development? To pass on to the next generations even what we have received. This. Well, the strategic plan is the beginning of important work for Zagori. Now, a lot of work has started and we all need to realize that. We must prepare – and above all implement – the strategic plan that will ensure its sustainable development. We still have a lot of work to do, but I think we all have, we believe that we have no right not to succeed in preserving this hybrid nature and human being unharmed.”
The compilation and submission history of the File UNESCO
The area of ​​Zagori includes a set of settlements of excellent traditional architecture, connected to each other by a unique network of stone-paved paths and bridges, which have been preserved in excellent condition. that condition. The settlements, which include large or small mansions, churches decorated with unique frescoes, schools attended by generations of Zagorisians, acquired their current special architectural form during the th -18th and 19th centuries..
The historical period of prosperity of the villages of Zagori is the result of the movement of their inhabitants, who through trading in the Balkans and Europe gained economic power that allowed them to invest in their area, an impressive natural environment, almost nothing touched by time, with forests, rich biodiversity, rivers, lakes and impressive geomorphological formations.
The project for the promotion of Zagori as a cultural landscape on the UNESCO World Heritage List is complex, because for the first time many different specialists have to work together to prepare the nomination file, such as archaeologists, architects , historian, topographer, environmentalist. , biologist, forest . Despite the communication difficulties caused by the pandemic, the submission of the dossier to the World Heritage Center was achieved, on time, in January 2021.
This was followed by a long period of evaluation of the file by UNESCO’s advisory bodies. The final judgment and registration of Zagori as Zagori Cultural Landscape in the World Heritage List took place on September 19, 2023, within the framework of the 45HIM Meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, in Riyadh. The Zagori Registration is a great success for Greece. For the first time, a cultural asset that is an excellent example of modern cultural heritage, the result of human interaction with nature, is registered in the Catalog.