16 March 2009 | The town of Ohrid in south-western Macedonia may be taken off the UNESCO World Heritage list if local authorities adopt the new urban plan.

“The adoption of this plan will be the biggest catastrophe for Ohrid,” Tanya Paskali-Buntasheska, director of the Institute and Museum in Ohrid. She told the Vest newspaper that the Institute gave recommendations for changes in the plan, which is now up for public discussion, but – although they promised, those who prepared them did not take them into consideration.

The plan, according to Paskali-Buntasheska, foresees the construction of buildings with ground levels and two floors but – due to the terrain’s rocky configuration, their planned height could create problems for Ohrid’s old town.

The Ohrid Lake and the town of Ohrid were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979 and 1980 respectively. According to the organisation’s description, “Ohrid is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Built mainly between the seventh and nineteenth centuries, it has the oldest Slav monastery (St Pantelejmon) and more than 800 Byzantine-style icons dating from the eleventh to the end of the fourteenth century” – a collection of icons considered to be among the most important in the world.

The plan is up for public discussion until March 20 and all who have remarks about it could make them until then, Branko Arnaudov, head of the urban sector of the Ohrid Municipality told the publication.

He told Vest that they have met with UNESCO representatives and cultural heritage experts and are taking their remarks into account. The suggestions will be taken for the plan’s next phase, with which the old town centre will be protected. “There is no place for concern that Ohrid will be taken off [the list of] UNESCO,” Arnaudov claimed.

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