TOMSK, Feb 20 – RIA Tomsk. Director of Heritage Institute, the head of the Center of State Cultural Policy of the Russian Federation Evgeny Bakhrevsky visited Tomsk with a lecture about wooden architecture and estimated the prospects of inclusion of the Tomsk wooden architecture in the list of the protected objects of UNESCO. Opinion of the expert – in material of RIA Tomsk.
Tomsk is founded in 1604, wooden and stone houses of the 18-19th centuries remained in the city. The program of preservation of wooden architecture includes 701 houses, 189 of them are now monuments of federal and regional importance.
Difficult, but feasible
"Today there are 1073 objects worldwide in the list of the world heritage of UNESCO and top five of the list – France, Germany, Italy, Spain and China – occupy 25% of all list. Russia is on the ninth place", – Bakhrevsky told at the press conference in the RIA Tomsk media center.
According to him, the Russian objects of wooden architecture were regularly included in the list of the world heritage in recent years.
"As for Tomsk, the most important requirement of UNESCO is the unique value (of objects) for all world culture. Undoubtedly, there is a potential in Tomsk. Especially it concerns wooden architecture. There is a lot of it, but they are (houses) about one period, it is merchant architecture in modernist style, it is really rather unique phenomenon", – Bakhrevsky shared.
He noted that "it is very honorably to be the owner of an object of the world heritage". According to the expert, it increases tourist appeal of the region for 20% in average.
"But heavy responsibility is imposed because the act of transfer in itself – inclusions of the object in lists of the world heritage – means some rearrangement of sovereignty over this object... It becomes not an object of the Tomsk region, but of the world. Residents of Tomsk will begin to bear responsibility to the whole world for its safety, and it is difficult", – Bakhrevsky emphasized.
Also he reported that it is very difficult to be included in the list of objects of UNESCO as it is required to prepare a special package of documents and to pass a number of tests for recognition as an object of world heritage that "difficult, but it is feasible".
The secret of uniqueness
"The wooden architecture in many cities is presented only by national architecture, generally it is the repeating examples of houses. And the wooden architecture in Tomsk is presented by a large number of a carving which is various both on the equipment, and on technical characteristics", – she explained.
According to her, the famous architects building the universities and other important objects of the country worked in Tomsk.
"It is much presented by styles: modernist style, style classicism and many others. Such houses form special style complexes. The value of wooden architecture represents a submission element with a landscape which forms unique parts of the urban environment", – Peretyagina noted.