The Mountains of the Pamirs in Tajikistan and 16 wooden tserkvas, or churches, in Poland and Ukraine, as well as the Golestan Palace in Tehran, have been granted World Heritage status by the UN cultural agency UNESCO. UNESCO made the announcement Sunday at its annual meeting in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.
UNESCO also bestowed World Heritage status on the city of Kaesong in North Korea, and the Bergpark Wilhelmshoehe in the German city of Kassel.
The New sites on UNESCO World Heritage List.
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Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine. Situated on the eastern fringe of eastern Europe, this transnational property includes a selection of 16 tserkvas - churches, built of horizontal wooden logs between the 16th and 19th centuries by communities of the Eastern Orthodox and Greek Catholic faiths.
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The churches represent the cultural expression of four ethnographic groups and the formal, decorative and technical characteristics they developed over time. The tserkvas bear testimony to a distinct building tradition rooted in Orthodox ecclesiastic design, interwoven with elements of local tradition, and symbolic references to their communities’ cosmogony.
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The tserkvas are built on a tri-partite plan surmounted by open quadrilateral or octagonal domes and cupolas.
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They feature wooden bell towers, iconostasis screens, and interior polychrome decorations as well as churchyards, gatehouses and graveyards.