The Borodino Battlefield in the Russian Federation was awarded the Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes.
Located in the area of Moscow, in the Mozhaisk district, the Borodino Battlefield (Moksova or Borodino Battle, 1912) covers over 100 km2. The historic landscape is similar to the one of 1812 and comprises about 205 monuments, fortifications, outstanding sites and historic buildings (redoubts, battery, gravestones, some defensive works date back to the Second World War, etc.). Among the cultural landscape elements, one can identify monumental evidence of the events, fortifications, cemeteries, parts of rural landscape, in which the events took place, and memorials. Moreover, there are also associated intangible elements, toponyms, written memoirs, books, pictures and maps.
The battlefield lies in a rural landscape with Russian traditional wooden villages. There are open landscapes with few inhabitants, woods, meadows along the rivers, and fields around villages. This is an evolving landscape, iconic for the countryside in the western part of the greater Moscow area. The unfolding of the Borodino battle at this place turned the area into a cultural landscape. After the destruction of a part of the countryside, three factors contributed to the emergence of a cultural landscape: a natural process, an economic revival and finally actions in favor of a memory emergence. The first memorial dates back to 1914. In 1941, the fortifications of the Mozhaisk defense line were erected and the Nazi troops were stopped at this place. From 1950 to 1980, large restoration works were conducted.
The award ceremony for the 2007 UNESCO-Greece Melina Mercouri International Prize for the Safeguarding and Management of Cultural Landscapes took place on Thursday, 4 October 2007 at UNESCO in Room XII.
