L'viv – the Ensemble of the Historic Centre

• New constructions within the historic centre
• Lack of valid detailed planning documents
• Inadequate infrastructure including the sewage system
• Housing
• Management systems/ management plan
• Solid waste
• War

• War

Not yet drafted

Not yet identified

Not yet identified

On 31 January 2024, the State Party submitted a state of conservation report, a summary of which is available at https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/865/documents/. The report highlights the main factors that could lead to the loss of the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property, as follows:

• The constant threat of drone and missile attacks by the military forces of the Russian Federation, exemplified by the destruction of monuments in the buffer zone of the property on 6 July 2023;
• The potential threat of deterioration of the property following the suspension of large-scale restoration projects due to martial law and lack of funding, and the loss of heritage specialists. Few of the restoration projects were implemented before the full-scale invasion. While some restoration work has continued since the beginning of the war, including with financial assistance from Poland, it has mostly concentrated on the interiors of the monuments. The loss of qualified heritage staff is further threatening the quality of work on the monuments;
• New construction projects in the property and its buffer zone; the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy (MCIP) has stopped several large-scale construction projects through its monitoring. However, the construction company behind the hotel project at 9 Adam Mickiewicz Square succeeded in overturning the MCIP’s order in court to stop construction on the grounds of violation of the law and a threat to the OUV of the property and continued with the current construction. The current project exceeds the parameters of the previous project, which received a negative advice from the World Heritage Centre and ICOMOS.

The report also provides information on the monitoring of the state of conservation of the property, the measures taken to ensure its protection and the actions planned for 2024, as follows:

• The Department of Historic Environment Protection of the L’viv City Council constantly monitors and informs the MCIP. The MCIP, by its Order No. 35 of 22 January 2024, approved the scientific and design documentation ‘Historical and Architectural Reference Plan of L’viv’, which defines the boundaries and modes of use of L’viv’s monument protection zones, establishes requirements for works and restrictions in the property and its buffer zone;
• Since the beginning of the war, a joint action plan has been drawn up by volunteer groups to protect cultural heritage sites in the property and its buffer zone. Over 50 sites were protected with special structures (such as metal shields and nets) and sandbags, while valuable elements were dismantled and moved to shelters. Fire protection equipment of the monuments was enhanced. 13 monuments were 3-D scanned. In addition, the L’viv City Council continues to mark monuments with the Blue Shield sign;
• It is planned to carry out restoration work on a few selected buildings in 2024, and to develop and adopt a Management Plan for the property, including a detailed emergency preparedness and risk mitigation plan. The State Party requests the support of the World Heritage Centre to this end, as well as to develop a proposal for the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR).

Between February and April 2024, in accordance with Paragraph 172 of the Operational Guidelines, the State Party submitted five urban transformation projects in the perimeter and buffer zone of the property, three of which have been technically reviewed by ICOMOS and the remaining two still under technical review by the Advisory Body.

Actions implemented by UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies to assist the State Party

UNESCO and the Advisory Bodies are working closely with the competent authorities and other cultural heritage stakeholders in Ukraine, as well as international partners, to support Ukraine in the protection and safeguarding of its cultural heritage. This support is part of UNESCO’s actions and emergency assistance programme for Ukraine and, more broadly, the Action Plan for Culture in Ukraine, coordinated by UNESCO and developed in close cooperation with more than forty national and international partners, including ICOMOS and ICCROM, and the MCIP, which endorsed it in August 2023.

In particular, UNESCO provided technical assistance for the historic residential complex in the buffer zone of the property (located at 50-76b, Stryyska Street), which was damaged by a missile on 6 July 2023, by conducting a 3D architectural laser scanning documentation and providing an international expert to advise the City Council’s technical team on consolidation and reinforcement measures to be implemented on the damaged buildings (July-August 2023).

In partnership with UNITAR/UNOSAT (United Nations Satellite Centre), UNESCO continued the daily verification and documentation of war damage to cultural sites, including updating and maintaining the Ukraine Cultural Heritage Monitoring Platform developed by UNESCO and UNITAR/UNOSAT. Satellite monitoring of cultural sites in Ukraine is being complemented by on-site assessment of a selected number of damaged cultural properties. A detailed damage assessment of the above-mentioned historic residential complex in the buffer zone of the property was conducted by UNESCO and ICCROM as a case study in the framework of a 5-day in-person training workshop/course on post-event on-site damage and risk assessment of cultural heritage sites in L’viv (23 to 27 October 2023).

The ‘L’viv Culture Hub’, supported by the UNESCO/Spain Funds-in-Trust, will be located in a historic building at 6 Kniazia Romana Street in L’viv, within the buffer zone of the property, and will open in mid-2024 after the completion of the renovation and restoration works. UNESCO has already completed the restoration of the building’s historic non-structural elements (doors and windows), with the remaining work to be completed shortly.

Due to the relatively more stable security situation in L’viv and the imminent opening of the ‘L’viv Cultural Hub’, a large number of support and training activities led by UNESCO and its partners have been hosted by the city of L’viv.

As part of the partnership with UNITAR/UNOSAT, UNESCO also organised an awareness-raising webinar on the principles of Geospatial Information Technologies (GIT) on 20 October 2023. The webinar was attended by the MCIP and more than 160 participants. The modules were translated into Ukrainian and made available on the UNITAR training courses website. Following the webinar, UNESCO and UNITAR/UNOSAT organised an on-site advanced training on the use of satellite imagery and data interpretation for 20 Ukrainian culture and heritage professionals in L’viv from 27 to 30 November 2023.

In the framework of the UNESCO/Japan Funds-in-Trust project ‘Emergency response for World Heritage and cultural property: damage assessment and protection’, UNESCO, in collaboration with ICCROM, organised an online workshop on 3 and 6 October 2023, with the participation of more than 100 national and international stakeholders, including the National Heritage Institute of Poland, World Monuments Fund, UNOSAT and MCIP and its national partners, to identify and discuss existing methodologies for damage and risk assessment of cultural property. The outcome of this workshop, aimed at cultural heritage professionals, World Heritage and Tentative List sites managers, and those responsible for cultural property under enhanced protection, was the development of a unified methodology and form for on-site damage and risk assessment of cultural property, adapted to the Ukrainian context, in accordance with the national regulatory framework and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols (1954 and 1999). Based on the methodology developed, a 5-day in-person workshop was held in L’viv from 23 to 27 October 2023 for 20 Ukrainian professionals on how to conduct on-site damage and risk assessments.

Furthermore, UNESCO, in collaboration with the Getty Conservation Institute and the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative, organised a capacity-building activity on collection management and preservation during conflicts, which took place on 10 and 11 October 2023. The workshop aimed to equip collection managers and museum conservators from cultural institutions in Ukraine with essential skills, knowledge and strategies – stabilisation measures, emergency planning and risk assessment – to preserve collections and safeguard cultural assets.

In addition, from 27 to 29 February 2024, UNESCO organised a training on ‘Enhancing museums’ capacities in collection management, digitisation and sustainability during emergencies’, which covered critical skills in collection management, digitisation and emergency preparedness. Fifty-four participants, including museum directors, curators and collection management specialists participated in this training in L’viv.

As a result of the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion, the property continues to be threatened by serious and specific dangers. The World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies propose that the World Heritage Committee reiterate its call to the parties to refrain from any action that would cause direct or indirect damage to the cultural heritage of Ukraine, in particular to its World Heritage properties and their buffer zones and wider settings, as well as to sites included on the Tentative List of Ukraine, and to comply with their obligations under international law, including Article 6 of the World Heritage Convention.

The World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies stand ready to assist the State Party in developing a proposal for the DSOCR and a set of corrective measures along with a timeframe for their implementation, as well as an emergency preparedness and risk mitigation plan, as requested by the Committee in its Decision 45 COM 7B.60. The request of the State Party for assistance in developing a Management Plan for the property is duly noted and may be supported through the World Heritage Fund’s budget line for properties in the List of World Heritage in Danger.

The State Party’s efforts to continue necessary restoration projects despite difficult circumstances due to martial law, lack of funds and the loss of heritage specialists, are commendable, as are its efforts to protect a number of cultural heritage monuments within the property.

The inability of the MCIP to halt the hotel project at 9 Adam Mickiewicz Square is of concern. The hotel appears to be even larger in scale than envisaged in the previous project, for which ICOMOS recommended the removal of at least one floor and further design changes in its 2019 Technical Review. As such, it will have a negative impact on the OUV of the property. It is recommended that the World Heritage Committee request an immediate halt to the construction works and a redesign of the project to ensure that the new construction does not have a negative impact on the attributes that underpin the property’s OUV. Moreover, the continuation of this project despite its negative impact on the property highlights the need to enhance the effectiveness of existing protection and management regulations and policies at national and local levels, including the implementation of the 2011 Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape as a tool for integrating heritage conservation into urban development plans and processes with a view to the future development of the city.

The request for detailed and differentiated legal protection regimes for the property and its buffer zone has been reiterated in recent Technical Reviews. The ‘Historical and Architectural Reference Plan of L’viv’ approved by the MCIP in January 2024, is a step forward. Future urban planning instruments, such as the Detailed Urban Plan and a Management Plan, of which the property has none, will have to comply with and fully respect it, as it is a key tool for the protection and management of the World Heritage property. Given that the ‘Historical and Architectural Reference Plan of L’viv’ has not been reviewed by the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies prior to its approval, the World Heritage Committee may wish to request the State Party to submit the full documentation contained in it to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies.