Hungary and Slovakia made a joint application for the site's inclusion on the list at the end of January.
Tamás Fejérdy, a deputy-director at the Cultural Heritage Protection Office and one of the authors of the application, said UNESCO does not limit the number of sites which can be included on the list at one time. The number could be five or even fifteen. But, of the dozens of applications experts at the UNESCO World Heritage Center receive, they only evaluate 45 at a time.
The World Heritage Committee will meet next in the summer of 2008 to decide on sites to be included on the list. The fortifications have a good chance to make the cut, considering Hungarian and Slovakian experts have prepared studies, made maps and taken photographs for years to include in the application, Fejérdy said. If the committee turns down the application, it could be reworked, either in large or small part, and resubmitted within months, he added.
The fortress at Komárom and Komárno was started in 1809 on the order of Emperor Franz Joseph I and completed in 1877. The construction involved some 2,000 stone artisans and 10,000 other labourers. From the end of WWII until 1991, the fortifications were used by the former Soviet Army.
Sites in Hungary included on UNESCO's World Heritage List are the area of Budapest along the Danube, the Castle District and historic Andrássy Avenue, the area around Fertö, or Neusiedlersee, on Hungary's border with Austria, the Hortobágy National Park, better known as the "Puszta" in Hungarian, the Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma, the early Christian necropolis of Pécs and the famous Tokaj wine region. On UNESCO's World Heritage List of natural wonders are the caves of Aggtelek, which Hungary shares with Slovakia.
For more information on UNESCO's World Heritage sites in Hungary visit http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/hu
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
