Krakow to host UNESCO - World Heritage Committee session in 2017
The 2017 UNESCO- World Heritage session will be held in Krakow. The decision was taken at the Committee meeting in Istanbul. In 2017, about a thousand of participants representing 190 countries will be meeting in the ICE Krakow Congress Centre, one of the most modern conference venues in Europe.
Applications for organization of UNESCO - World Heritage session were submitted by the ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Culture and National Heritage. As for competing venues, Krakow beat Vietnam.
It is worth mentioning that the advantage of Krakow over other applicants was the central location of our city and the successfully developing Krakow Airport offering flights to nearly all parts of the world. One of the arguments decisive of the final choice of Krakow was the special venue where the session will be held – the Krakow ICE Congress Centre.
The decision on organization of the session in one of the first twelve places present on the List was taken on the last day of the 40th session which was discontinued due to the events related to the failed coup in Turkey.
The debates will be continued in October, in the UNESCO main quarters in Paris. At that time, chairmanship of the World Heritage Committee will be taken over by Polish representative whose candidacy was unanimously approved by the delegates in Istanbul. It is Prof. Jacek Purchla, President of the Polish National Commission for UNESCO, a renowned specialist in the field of protection and renovation of cultural heritage, the founder and long time director of the International Cultural Centre in Krakow.
The fact of granting to Poland chairmanship and organization of this extremely important UNESCO session, deciding on protective measures relating to the most valuable cultural and natural assets all over the world, is an expression of international recognition of our contribution into the cause of protecting world cultural and natural heritage
Krakow, well known in the world as a European mediaeval city, was placed on the World Heritage List in 1978.
