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• Travel and Tourism
• Culture and Traditions
• History
• 11 / 12 / 2009

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The island has a long and oustanding work in preserving the old sites coming from colonial times.

Unesco has declared a world heritage to 19 sites in the Caribean region and nine are located in Cuba, said doctor Isabel Rigol when speaking about the challenges of the region on this issue.

  The Cuban representative before the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), lectured about the challenges facing the Caribbean in the protection of its heritage, both built and natural.

Her speech opened the Fourth Workshop of Cuban Cities registered in the list of World Heritage, organized by the Conservation Office of this city, located 150 miles southeast of Havana.

The exclusive selection includes the historical center of Cienfuegos, the old colonial towns of Old Havana, Trinidad (center) and Camaguey (central east).

Also in the list are the Morro fortress of Santiago de Cuba, the cultural landscape of Viñales (west) and the natural parks Alexander Humboldt and Granma Landing in the eastern part of the island.

There are many more sites with potential of being recognized in this category by the cultural institution  of the United Nations system, assured the Cuban academic specialist who cited the example of the wooden architecture of Trinidad and

Tobago. The fact of not taking into account these cultural realities, the lack of institutions capable of denfending them and systemics in national and local policies, conspire against the exaltation of those sites to world heritage, she explained.

The truth is that most countries of the American Mediterranean lack sufficient competence for a comprehensive handling of its heritage areas, she affirmed.

Such an evidence has made UNESCO to design the Program of Building Capacity for Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Caribbean, which already has a regional office in Havana, said the professor in Architecture.

Natural events are among the dangers threatening these sites due to climate change that affects severely the nations of the Caribbean Basin, recalled the lecturer.

About Cienfuegos, declared as such in the South African meeting in Durban four years ago, the architect Rigol highlighted it is a unique city in the Caribbean Basin by its modern urban conception.

Source: Prensa Latina