Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra

• Ground transport infrastructure (planned by-pass road project and conversion of the bazaar into a pedestrian area in Gjirokastra)
• Housing
• Illegal activities (illegal construction dating from the late 1990s and later on)
• High impact research/monitoring activities (lack of specific monitoring indicators)
• Governance (lack of detailed tourism development plan and lack of programme of archaeological excavations)
• Management activities (e.g. restoration work at the Berat Castle)
• Management System/Management Plan
• Other factors (lack of adequate firefighting arrangements in the historic urban zones)

Total amount granted: USD 1,367,014 is provided by the Albanian Government within the framework of the project 933 ALB 4000 “Safeguarding and restoration of selected monuments within the World Heritage site of the Old City of Gjirokastra – Albania”

On 1 December 2020, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/569/documents/, and provides information regarding a number of conservation issues addressed by the Committee at its previous sessions as follows:

• Law 27/2018 “On Cultural Heritage and Museums” is being implemented. The process includes passing by-laws to establish, among others, a National Tangible Cultural Heritage Council, a National Cultural Properties Management Council, a National Cultural Heritage Registration Institute and two Regional Directorates of Cultural Heritage (RDCH);
• General Local Plans for the municipalities of Berat and Gjirokastra provide the framework for the protection of the property’s components and buffer zones, which ban new building construction in the property. Restoration in the property and new construction in the buffer zones is regulated by the National Tangible Cultural Heritage Council and the respective municipalities;
• Monitoring indicators are in use by the RDCHs of both Berat and Gjirokastra;
• Development of an Integrated Management Plan (IMP) and appropriate control mechanisms will commence in 2021 and will be submitted to the World Heritage Centre for review before implementation;
• In response to the Committee request to develop and implement an integrated urban conservation and development tool applying the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL), the State Party reports that its national webgis platform contains information on values and state of conservation for all monument and cultural heritage sites, and that it maintains a photo record of each building, which will be digitized during 2021. The IMP that is being developed will also be based on the HUL;
• The Project for Integrated Urban Development (PIUTD), funded by the World Bank and Albanian Development Fund which is in its 3rd year, will implement upgrade projects in public spaces in the property’s components and buffer zones and Gjirokastra museums. Details were included as 9 annexes to the report for review;
• Public and privately funded maintenance and restoration in both Berat and Gjirokastra, supervised by each respective RDCH, has continued;
• The State Party recommits to employing the mechanism provided by Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines to keep the Committee informed of any potential development that could impact the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property.

The State Party informed the World Heritage Centre in line with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines about new plans for a by-pass road project in Gjirokastra on 20 January 2021, requesting review and recommendations from the Advisory Bodies to the project. In response to third party information submitted to the World Heritage Centre outlining the commencement of the construction of the Gjirokastra by-pass road project, further additional information was requested from the State Party in line with Paragraph 174 of the Operational Guidelines in a letter dated 16 March 2021. The State Party did not provide any further information or clarification until completion of this state of conservation report.

The State Party is making progress in improving the management system and state of conservation of both the Berat and Gjirokastra component of the property. The steps taken in implementing the legislation “On Cultural Heritage and Museums” and the required by-laws is very positive. It is likewise welcome that the State Party has committed to completing the IMP during 2021, based on the provisions of the HUL. This responds to a Committee request in 2016 and is funded through International Assistance approved in 2018.

Some of the proposals included in the PIUTD documentation submitted with the State Party’s report in Annexes 3, 4, 5, 8 and 9 have been reviewed by ICOMOS and are generally found to be fit for purpose, with recommendations made to augment the designs of the proposals. The Committee may wish to request the State Party to address these recommendations, specifically those relating to the aesthetics of urban interventions, before implementation, and request that the information contained in the PIUTD submissions is used to inform the IMP under preparation. However, it should be noted that the PIUTD project focusses strongly on tourism as an economic basis for the future of the two components of the property. The Committee may wish to request the State Party to diversify its plans to develop a more economically resilient basis for the future of the property.

One component of the PIUTD project not included in the State Party’ state of conservation report is the Gjirokastra by-pass road. The by-pass project was already subject to an ICOMOS Technical review in 2016, which recommended the project be reconsidered, following which the State Party informed the World Heritage Centre in a letter dated 4 March 2019 of the suspension of the project. In January 2021, the State Party submitted to the World Heritage Centre a request for review by the Advisory Bodies of a redeveloped proposal for the Gjirokastra by-pass project, then already approved by the National Council on Tangible Cultural Heritage. Third party information received by the World Heritage Centre included documentation that sketches a very worrying situation of the project, which seems to be already under construction. The transmitted design implies the project to have a potential negative impact on the OUV of the property. This needs verification from the State Party, and it is recommended that the Committee request the State Party to halt this project until a mission has assessed its impact on the OUV of the property and made recommendations.

Seeing the number of ongoing and future development plans, governance related questions as well as the conflicting reports on the state of conservation of this property, it is recommended that the Committee also request the State Party to invite a joint World Heritage Centre/ICOMOS/ICCROM Reactive Monitoring mission to the property to assess the progress in improving the state of conservation and the efficacy of development controls and monitoring indicators, as well as advise on the development of the IMP, and assess the by-pass road project.