Location of the initiative:
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Relation to Strategy 21 Recommendations:
Brief description of the initiative:
The principal document for the built heritage protection in Slovakia – the Act No. 49/2002 on the protection of monuments and historic sites – provides protection within the national legislation only to monuments and historic sites of national importance, however, right from its adoption in 2002 it introduced a category of „a local heritage list of the municipality“ (§ 14, sec. 4), thus allowing protection of not only movable and immovable property but also of combined human and natural works or intangible items important on local or regional level through regulatory mechanisms of local self-government. Through proposals for inscription of items into local heritage lists under this measure, local citizens may directly influence the protection of objects to which they have special relationship and believe should be preserved. Local lists of heritage are adopted by the municipal council, which in turn may pass a regulation defining ways of dealing with items on the list. The municipality has the right to require that any intervention on the listed object should be negotiated with the municipality council. Municipalities are encouraged to prepare their heritage lists in consultation with specialised scientific and academic institutions, and especially with the territorially competent Regional Monuments Boards which provide both, the methodological guidance during the creation stage of the list and the assistance of state authority in safeguarding of listed items against damaging interventions. Local lists of heritage also constitute a basis for allocation of municipal financial resources into the acknowledged monuments’ conservation and for fostering of the active involvement of general public into identification and protection of heritage values in their local communities.
