Authorities in Lithuania’s second-largest city Kaunas are finalising a bid for the town’s modernist architecture to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
"We are truly approaching the finish line. The application – the nomination case – is about to be finished," Saulius Rimas, head of the cultural heritage division at Kaunas Municipality, told BNS.
The modernist architecture of Kaunas was put on the UNESCO tentative list in 2017, which opened the way for the city to start preparing its nomination bid.
Kaunas sprawled in the 1930s when the city was Lithuania's temporary capital after Poland occupied Vilnius.
Read more: 1930s Kaunas modernism icon declared cultural monument
A draft version of the nomination case should be filed with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre by September 31.
The final decision is expected to be made in 2022, the year when Kaunas will also be the European Capital of Culture.
The tentative list includes objects and territories that countries would like to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
There are currently four Lithuanian sites on the world heritage list, including Vilnius Historic Centre, Kernavė Archaeological Site, the Curonian Spit and the Struve Geodetic Arc.
Read more: Stumbling stones. Ilgovskis brothers, the developer tycoons of interwar Kaunas
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