"Reserved Kenozerye" with unique samples of Russian wooden architecture can be recognized as a world heritage

The nomination of the cultural landscape "Reserved Kenozerye" has been approved for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia reports on its website with reference to the Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage named after D.S. Likhachev.

"The UNESCO World Heritage Center has confirmed that the nomination dossier of the Russian site "Reserved Kenozerye" (Arkhangelsk Region) is complete and meets all international requirements," the report says.

Russia included the "Reserved Kenozerye" in the preliminary list of sites proposed for inclusion in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2014. Its buffer zone is the Kenozersky UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and the Kenozersky National Park, a federal specially protected natural area (category II IUCN).

The status of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve complements and reveals the potential status of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the ministry explained.

Now the complete nomination is submitted for examination to the International the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).

“The next stage of the nomination process will be a site visit by an assessment mission of ICOMOS international experts. If the mission, as planned, takes place in the summer of 2023, the “Reserved Kenozero” may be submitted for consideration by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee as early as 2024,” the report says.

"Reserved Kenozerye" is a unique example of the Russian village way of life, preserved far from large cities in the north of Russia. Its distinguishing feature is the famous Russian wooden architecture. Over 30 chapels and churches of the 18th-19th centuries have been preserved on the territory of the Kenozersky National Park, which allow you to see in miniature the history of the development of the architecture of the Russian North, the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia noted.