Unesco today values ​​the candidatures of Brazil, Peru and Uruguay for World Heritage

Shanghai (China), Jul 26 (EFE) .- The Unesco World Heritage Committee plans to examine today the candidatures of Brazil, Peru and Uruguay for inclusion in its list of protected sites.

The Roberto Burle Marx Site (Brazil), the ceremonial center and solar observatory of Chankillo (Peru) and the church of Atlántida Station (Uruguay) are the candidates that will be examined by Unesco from 19:30 local time (11:30 GMT), according to the agenda provided by the institution.

All these proposals have been pending since 2020, when UNESCO was forced to cancel its annual appointment due to global health conditions derived from the covid-19 pandemic.

This meant that the forty-fourth session of the World Heritage Committee became an extended version in which not only the applications from the current year are evaluated but also those that could not be judged last year.

The sessions are based in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, but with the pandemic still active, they are mostly being held virtually.

AN OBSERVATORY, A CHURCH AND A TROPICAL GARDEN

Peru presents the archaeological complex of Chankillo, in which researchers point out that direct astronomical observations were carried out between 500 and 200 BC, following the annual movement of the Sun to regulate religious festivals and other seasonal events.

Located near the coast, about 365 kilometers north of Lima, the observatory is distributed in three sectors that cover about four square kilometers in which there are 13 towers, a circular temple and a plaza, built with earth and mud.

The Andean country's authorities emphasize that it is "unique worldwide" because, unlike other ancient observatories, Chankillo covered the entire annual solar cycle.

Much more modern is Uruguay's proposal, the church of Estación Atlántida, built between 1958 and 1960 by the engineer Eladio Dieste (1917-2000).

Dieste is known worldwide for developing the system of "armed ceramics" and the double curvature vaults, and assured that the church of Atlántida was a work that "changed his life".

The Catholic temple is located in the Estación Atlántida locality, in the department of Canelones (southern coast of Uruguay), and is particular for its use of exposed brick.

On the Brazilian side, the Roberto Burle Marx Site is, according to the country's Ministry of Tourism, "the legacy of the landscaper who created the concept of the modern tropical garden."

Located in the western area of ​​Rio de Janeiro, it covers more than 407,000 square meters of forest area and has a collection of more than 3,500 species of tropical and subtropical plants.

Apart from gardens and nurseries, there are also six lakes and seven buildings on the site, which receives about 30,000 visitors a year and where the landscaper himself lived (1909-1994) from 1973 until his death.

MORE CANDIDATES

This Monday the proposals of Amami-Oshima (Japan), Getbol (South Korea), Kaeng Krachan (Thailand), the rain forests and wetlands of Colquida (Georgia), Arslantepe (Turkey), the extension of the lines of defense (Holland), the borders of the Roman Empire (Austria, Germany, Hungary and Slovakia), the Colonies of benevolence (Belgium and Holland) and the mining landscape of Rosia Montana (Romania).

The candidatures of Brazil, Peru and Uruguay are not the only ones from the Spanish-speaking world presented to this extended session of the World Heritage Committee, which yesterday decided to include in its list the "Landscape of Light" of Madrid, composed of the Paseo del Prado, the Jardines del Buen Retiro and the architectural, artistic and natural complex that surrounds it.

Likewise, it is planned that tomorrow afternoon the sites of the Chinchorro culture (Chile) and the monastery and cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción de Tlaxcala (Mexico), candidates already belonging to the 2021 proposals, will be reviewed.

On the other hand, the candidacy presented by the Dominican Republic for the inclusion of the historical and archaeological site of La Isabela in the Unesco World Heritage List was withdrawn, Unesco sources told EFE.