Documentation for the inscription of spas to UNESCO has 2000 pages

Karlovy Vary - The Ministry of Culture today will hand over to the UNESCO headquarters the nomination documentation for the inclusion of 11 European spa towns on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The preparation of this documentation has been underway since 2016, and the documentation itself consists of approximately 2000 pages, Michal Urban, the chairman of the international working group that prepared the documents, informed CTK in a press release today. The Czech spas aspiring for inclusion are Karlovy Vary, Františkovy Lázně, and Mariánské Lázně.

In addition to the Czech towns, the prestigious list is being sought by Baden-Baden, Bad Ems, and Bad Kissingen from Germany, the Belgian city of Spa, French Vichy, Montecatini Terme from Italy, the Austrian city of Baden near Vienna, and the City of Bath in England.

"The structure of the nomination documentation is precisely defined by the operational directives of UNESCO, consisting of a total of nine chapters," Urban stated. "The most important among them is the third chapter, which justifies why the famous spas of Europe should be inscribed on the World Heritage List and what their exceptional universal value consists of. The longest in scope is the second chapter, which describes the current status of the nominated property and its history," Urban added.

The preparation of the nomination documentation began in the summer of 2016, and the first version was completed in September 2017. The collection was supplemented throughout the last year. "Dozens of people from all eleven spa towns and many expert institutions participated in its preparation. The total list of co-authors includes nearly one hundred names. Regarding the towns in the West Bohemian spa triangle, the main author of the texts was Lubomír Zeman," Urban complemented.

The documentation weighs 5.8 kilograms. It is in A4 format. About 1400 pages consist of the nomination documentation itself, 300 pages consist of maps, and the joint management plan is detailed over approximately 150 additional pages. Local management plans, approximately 150 pages each for every town, will later be added to the material, totaling about another 1650 pages.