The version invoked by circles within the Ministry of Culture, namely that the candidacy for the independent registration of Spinalonga on the List of World Cultural Heritage Monuments was withdrawn by the Ministry of Culture itself in order to prevent the… risk of a negative response from the General Assembly of UNESCO and the risk of a new candidacy being frozen for many years, with better preparation of the file, seems to have been adopted by the Mayor of Agios Nikolaos, Manolis Menegakis.
The conclusion from the discussion held at the special accountability meeting of the Municipal Council is that the municipal authority has not abandoned the goal of re-compiling and re-submitting the Spinalonga candidacy file for UNESCO, simply, as he emphasized and has repeated on other occasions, this must be done after certain conditions, to which he specifically referred, have matured. However, Mr. Menegakis does not consider the current period of time to be opportune for reviving the Spinalonga case.
The discussion in “Accountability” was sparked by the question posed by municipal councilor Despo Karniadaki, who asked the Mayor to answer the following:
* What specific actions have been taken to date by the Municipality to restore, review or update the file for Spinalonga’s inclusion in UNESCO?
*Is there currently a specific roadmap, timetable or strategic plan for restarting the process of international recognition of Spinalonga?
*What are, in the opinion of the Municipal Authority, the main outstanding issues, difficulties or omissions that have not allowed the integration process to be completed to date?
Mr. Menegakis mentioned that at a critical stage in the development of the project and support for the request, the Region of Crete was cut off and that was not right… He emphasized that as a municipal authority, “it does not abandon the unilateral registration of Spinalonga on the UNESCO List, but the Municipality needs better preparation, in cooperation with the Region of Crete.
As an element that improves the preparation for the re-formulation of the request, the mayor considers the implementation of the infrastructure that has been planned to be built on the island. To some extent, the electrification has been implemented with the buried cable of the Hellenic Electricity and Water Authority (HEDNO) and the connection to the electrical panel and the distribution network on the island remains. Furthermore, the KAS also approved the connection of the island’s night lighting with electricity, ending the use of a diesel generator.
There are also funds for the operation of a “compact” biological and water supply for the island, and approval of the corresponding studies has been scheduled. The updating of the existing study for the construction of a new pier for mooring day boats for safer embarkation/disembarkation of visitors is also progressing, said Mr. Menegakis.
As emerged from the discussion, a programmatic agreement between the Municipality – DEYAAN and the Ministry of Culture is imminent for the project of transferring the Spinalonga water supply pipe.
After all this is completed, on its own initiative, the Municipality, in collaboration with the Region of Crete, will bring the request back “on a stronger basis, so that it has a greater chance of being registered on the List, and we will not hesitate to consult with special experts on the candidacies to UNESCO,” said the mayor.
He clarified that “at this time we are in the phase of serial inscriptions of monuments on the UNESCO List and there was a risk that if it were placed again now, they would tell us what you want the individual inscription to be, that you would enter a serial inscription together with similar monuments… But Spinalonga is not a case that can be included in a serial inscription together with many other monuments. And I am in a position to know that not even the Ministry of Culture wanted something like this from the beginning, as is evident from the… context”.
Unique monument
“Spinalonga is a monument of unique historical, cultural and humanitarian importance, not only for Crete and Greece, but also for the international community. Its history, as a Venetian fortress but mainly as a place of human suffering, social exclusion, memory and dignity, gives it a special global symbolism, which goes beyond the narrow limits of a fortification monument,” emphasized Ms. Karniadaki, citing a detailed record of the chronicle of the effort to compile and submit Spinalonga’s candidacy file, which began in 2009.
After 13 years, specifically on 6-8-2022, during a meeting in the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos, Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni publicly revealed that the evaluation of ICOMOS — UNESCO’s scientific advisor — was extremely negative regarding the independent inscription of Spinalonga.
According to the Minister’s statements at the time, UNESCO considered that Spinalonga could not proceed as an independent candidacy, but only within the framework of a serial inscription together with other important Venetian fortresses in the Mediterranean, through cooperation with countries such as Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus.
She also stated that: if the independent candidacy file had not been withdrawn in time, there was a risk of definitive exclusion of any future submission, that the Ministry of Culture is considering promoting a file for the award of the European Cultural Heritage Label, while in a second stage there could be preparations for serial registration with other Mediterranean fortresses.
The then Mayor of Agios Nikolaos, Antonis Zervos, had publicly reacted to the change in “course” of management of the Spinalonga case by the Ministry of Culture and the statements of Ms. Mendoni, pointing out that the direction of independent registration had been given from the beginning by the Ministry of Culture itself and that for a number of years all the services involved had worked on the basis of this strategy.
At the same time, he emphasized that Spinalonga is not just another Venetian fortress, but a global monument of human suffering and memory, with a unique historical and symbolic character, which cannot be downgraded within a general serial listing of fortifications.
Despite public reports and the importance of the issue for the cultural identity, historical memory and international visibility of our region, to date neither a clear timetable nor a specific strategic plan for the restoration and continuation of the process has been officially presented, stressed Ms. Karniadaki.
Because the Spinalonga case concerns the historical legacy of our country, but also important development and cultural prospects for the Municipality of Agios Nikolaos, and all of this is also related to the international recognition of the importance and value of the monument with its independent registration on the UNESCO List of World Cultural Heritage Sites, no more time should be wasted in achieving this goal, emphasized the municipal councilor of the minor minority.
Source: Nikolaos Trantas for Anatolh.com