Dziesięć lat Drewnianych Kościołów Południowej Małopolski na Liście światowego dziedzictwa UNESCO

Ten years, which passed since the Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska have been inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List, pose a great opportunity to present the activities and successes in the area of preservation and widely understood protection of these unique sites. The main purpose behind the UNESCO List is ensuring relevant protection to the most valuable cultural goods to preserve them in possibly unchanged form for the future generations. Therefore, the issue, whether current guardianship and protection of the Małopolska churches are sufficient for maintaining their unique and universal value, authenticity and integrity, is worth discussing. The Wooden Churches of Southern Małopolska are a serial inscription covering six Gothic churches built using the horizontal log technique and located in the following localities: Blizne, Binarowa, Dębno Podhalańskie, Haczów, Lipnica Murowana and Sękowa. The churches have been subject to numerous important conservation and renovation works throughout the last ten years. Their scope varied depending on the church, its needs and requirements. Apart from the conservation and renovation works necessary to preserve the sites of world heritage in due manner, the actions aiming at delivery of the tasks under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention have been taken. To ensure possibly highest protection standards of the UNESCO List sites in Poland, including wooden churches of Małopolska, the actions targeted on their monitoring and assessment of preservation, scientific research and works aiming at proper site management have been performed. These works were carried out for the most under the statutory tasks of the National Heritage Board of Poland. Two separate Polish and Norwegian projects aiming at improving the system of world heritage protection in Poland and Norway and working-out better and more effective methods for managing the sites inscribed into the UNESCO List were delivered within the scientific works. Research performed under both these projects covered also the wooden churches of southern Małopolska.