The Romanian Culture Ministry on Friday announced the World Heritage Centre in Paris that it has included the Rosia Montana cultural landscape on the country’s tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage.

“Rosia Montana has been the most active mining center in the Apuseni Mountains, starting with the first operations in the Bronze Age, and continuing in the ancient times and the medieval period, the Modern Era and the recent past. The traditional mining, based on the initiative of families and small miners associations, ended when the nationalization took place in 1948 and was followed by another form of mining, industrial, conducted on a large scale, which ended in 2006. Therefore, Rosia Montana has one of the oldest traditional mining sites known today,” reads the Ministry’s statement.

Some of the site's defining attributes are the mining galleries (for exploitation, assistance, ventilation, and water evacuation) - excavated since Roman times and continued during the medieval and modern periods, the Roman landscape at the surface, the historic industrial landscape, and the Rosia Montana mining fair. The galleries dug into the mountains surrounding the village total more than 80 km, with 7 km dating from the ancient times.

According to evaluations cited by the Culture Ministry, Rosia Montana meets five of the criteria set by UNESCO for a site to be included in the World Heritage List.

Including Rosia Montana in the national tentative list is the first procedural step for its inclusion in the World Heritage list and represents the starting point of an applied research and evaluation process. At the end of this process, which can take several years, Romania can submit an application to the World Heritage Center.

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Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com