You're reading: UNESCO keeps St. Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv Pechersk Lavra on World Heritage List

UNESCO is to leave St. Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on its list of World Heritage Sites, its members decided during the 37th conference being held in Cambodia from June 16 to 27. Both of the sights were on the verge of losing the status due to the Kyiv City Administration failing to follow the organization’s recommendations.

The latest debate was sparked after the recent visit of the International Council on Monuments and Sites expert
Todor Krestev in April and his report issued thereafter.

It stated that none of the three recent recommendations given to Kyiv by
UNESCO were satisfied. The 33rd session held in 2009 advised Ukraine to create
a single governing body of world heritage and to introduce a moratorium on the
development of buffer zones. The following session in 2010 recommended
approving a general plan for the city. The 35th session of 2011 asked to expand
the boundaries of the buffer zones.

“Our country openly ignores the recommendations of UNESCO. It feels as if
it were beneficial to someone. If the sights are to be expelled from the UNESCO
list, it is possible to do anything with them, including the construction
shopping malls, hotels and other commercial facilities,” said the
vice-president of the Kyiv National Union of Architects Georgy Duhovichny.

However, the World Heritage Centre and the
Advisory Bodies notes in the report that a moratorium on all high-rise and
non-conforming buildings in the buffer zone is under consideration by Kyiv City
Council, and is supported by the Ministry of Culture. They also note the
decision by the State Party to undertake an independent expert assessment of
the overall monastic Dnipro River landscape.

As a result, the issue of preserving St.
Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra on the UNESCO list was met by a
heated debate at the conference, with Germany and Switzerland voting against.
But Ukraine was supported by Russia, Japan,
Algeria and some other countries said Ukrainian Culture Minister Leonid
Novokhatko.

“I would like to congratulate you and Ukrainian
society with the fact that as of now, this issue is off the agenda and, God
willing, forever. We hope this issue will never be raised again,” he said upon
arriving to Ukraine from the session.

Kyiv Post intern Anna Shamanska can be reached at [email protected].