Zsolt Visy, a historian and former cultural state secretary who is working on the application, says a decision on the matter could be made within one or two years after the applicaton is submitted. Work on the application started in 2003, he added.
The Ripa Pannonica - a 500-kilometre-long network of encampments, towers and roads along the Danube - has already been placed on the waiting list at the Hungarian World Heritage Commission, and adminstrative work is all that needs to be completed, says Visy. The Ripa Pannonica must be mapped and a record of the owners of the land along which it lies must be drawn up. Funding for these tasks is expected to come from the Kultura 2000 fund. When they are completed, the application can be submitted to UNESCO, probably in January 2010.
If the Ripa Pannonica is included on the World Heritage List, it would mean a significant change for the better to the region's tourism industry, according to Visy, who cites the example of Hadrian's Wall, also a part of the old Roman frontier, which was included on the World Heritage List in 1987.
The World Heritage List programme was founded with the Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, which was adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO on November 16, 1972. Since then, 812 sites have been included on the list. Hungary became a participant in the programme in 1985.
Cultural sites in Hungary already included on UNESCO's World Heritage List include the view of Budapest along the Danube, the Castle District, 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 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.
Source: Múlt-kor / Hungarian News Agency (MTI)
