- неділя, 28 червня 2026 р.
On this day, as Ukraine celebrates an important public holiday – Constitution Day – the university community is also marking the 15th anniversary of the former Residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovina and Dalmatia (now Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University) being inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Tamara Volodymyrivna Marusyk – head of the UNESCO Site Management Centre, member of the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and vice-president of the Ukrainian National Committee of ICOMOS – tells us how it all began.
— Where did the idea of nominating the Residence for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List actually come from?
— It all began in 2004. At that time, a major conference was held at the university, at which the possibility of including the entire historic centre of Chernivtsi on the UNESCO list was discussed — following the example of Lviv. There were numerous discussions, and the city council prepared the documentation to be submitted for the site’s inclusion on the Tentative List.
Under UNESCO procedures, each site must go through four mandatory stages:
Inclusion on the Tentative List.
Preparation of a comprehensive nomination dossier.
A visit by an international expert from ICOMOS (the International Council on Monuments and Sites).
Official inclusion on the main list.
At that point, the city was due to submit the documents concerning the historic centre, but for some reason the process did not proceed any further.
— What prompted the decision to nominate the former Residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovina and Dalmatia (now Chernivtsi National University) in particular?
— Everything changed in 2006, when the then Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Volodymyr Ohryzko, paid a private visit to Chernivtsi. He was also the head of the National Commission for UNESCO at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. When he first entered the Residence, he was simply amazed, and advised us to submit an application for its inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
After he left, the rector, Stepan Vasylovych Melnychuk, and I sat down, discussed the matter and decided to give it a go. The documentation for inclusion on the Tentative List was prepared promptly, and as early as 2007, during the 31st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Christchurch (New Zealand), the Residence was included on the Tentative List.
— The next stage was the preparation of the nomination dossier. How did the university cope with this painstaking work?
— It was a colossal challenge. In accordance with the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, we had to demonstrate that the site met the specified criteria. Usually, such documentation was prepared by the specialised Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kyiv. When the rector went there, he was presented with a simply astronomical quote. The university did not have such funds, but it was decided to set up a working group comprising architect Iryna Korotun and our lecturers – historians, geographers, biologists and translators. In 2008, work on the dossier began.
— Apart from the dossier itself, you also drew up what is known as a management plan. What is this, and why did you have to start from scratch?
— The management plan is a vast document that sets out in detail how exactly the state and the university undertake to look after the former Residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovina and Dalmatia, to restore it and to preserve it for the future.
This UNESCO requirement only came into being in 2005. We were the first in Ukraine to draw up this document entirely from scratch. We were in constant consultation with Paris: we sent our drafts there, and the UNESCO Special Representative made the necessary amendments.
— Once the documents were ready, how did the approval process go in Kyiv?
— It is not the university but the State of Ukraine that submits documents to UNESCO, so the final signature had to be provided by the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Before that, we had to obtain approval from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine. There was an extremely strict deadline: the documents had to be received by 1 February. If we were even a minute late after midnight on 31 January, consideration would automatically be postponed until the following year.
However, we managed to gather all the approvals in Kyiv and I delivered the package of documents to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In May, ahead of the 35th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, we received an official response: the dossier had been accepted without any comments.
Furthermore, even before the trip, I had an idea: ‘Let’s write letters to all the embassies of the countries that are members of the committee and will be voting — there were 21 in total — asking for their support’. We drafted these letters in English. I then suggested to the rector: ‘Let’s have the Minister of Education sign these letters personally, rather than the university. This will give the documents the greatest possible weight.’
— Following the successful submission of the documents, an international expert was due to visit Chernivtsi to assess the site in person. How did his visit go?
— In early September, the ICOMOS expert Josef Stulz arrived. The following 10 days were very intense. Josef Stulz inspected the entire Residence: from the deep cellars right up to the roof. His mission was strictly confidential.
— However, did some unforeseen difficulties arise just before the UNESCO session itself?
— Yes. In May 2011, just one month before the official UNESCO session in Paris, a decision to postpone the inclusion of the Residence on the UNESCO List for two years suddenly appeared on their website.
— The draft decision on the postponement upset the team, but the UNESCO session in Paris itself was still ahead. How was the delegation organised for that?
— Everyone was very upset, but we realised we had to keep fighting. An official delegation of six people was formed. Four colleagues — representatives from the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — flew to Paris a few days earlier. Rector Stepan Melnychuk and I, however, were unable to travel with them. It was June — the peak period for sessions, thesis defences and master’s graduation ceremonies — so we flew in a little later.
— In France, the language issue is often a matter of principle. Who helped you with the translation?
— That’s a story in itself, one of which I’m extremely proud. We absolutely needed to speak French, because although they understood English there, the French insisted on communicating in their own official language. Our head of department, Taras Ivasyutin, found Oksana Mizerak, a graduate of Chernivtsi National University, in Paris, who heads the Ukrainian Literary Club there. For the entire five days we were there, she unfailingly acted as our interpreter. This is a shining example of the highly capable specialists our university produces.
— A huge number of sites were under consideration in Paris. How did you lay the groundwork to overturn the commission’s previous decision?
— The queue for our case was moving slowly: there were 42 sites in the nomination, and ours was second to last. The Ministry of Education kept a close eye on the matter and asked us to provide detailed arguments refuting all the experts’ comments. We set everything out clearly.
— What exactly happened in the days leading up to the vote in Paris itself?
— The Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to UNESCO, headed by Ukraine’s Ambassador to France, Oleksandr Kupchyshyn, gave us a very warm welcome. The consideration of our case was scheduled for as late as 28 June, but our master’s graduation ceremony in Chernivtsi was due to take place on the very same day. We had booked our tickets home for the 26th. So, on 26 June, we flew back, but not before carrying out a tremendous amount of preparatory work. We met with committee members, handed out information leaflets and made our case. Together with Oleksandra, a representative of our Permanent Delegation, we stayed at UNESCO headquarters until midnight: Stepan Vasylovych and I dictated our arguments, whilst she translated them on the spot and typed up the text in French.
— How did the UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting itself go?
— When our nomination was announced, they showed our short one-minute presentation film and read out the draft decision to postpone the decision for two years. But immediately afterwards, representatives from several countries wanted to hear the Ukrainian side’s case. Our Oleksandra gave a brilliant presentation to the committee. As a result, by an overwhelming majority of votes, the former Residence of the Metropolitans of Bukovina and Dalmatia was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List without any postponements.
— What was happening in Chernivtsi at that moment? How did you find out about the victory?
— On 28 June, Constitution Day, we were in Chernivtsi preparing for the master’s degree graduation ceremony. Journalists and television crews were already gathering around us. Suddenly, at around 10.30, I received a text message from Oleksandra in Paris: "Congratulations! The review of our application has begun!" And shortly afterwards, a phone call: "Stepan Vasylovych, Tamara Volodymyrivna, the university has been included on the World Heritage List! This is a victory for Ukraine!" The rector kept repeating: "I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it…". It was a moment of incredible emotional elation.
— When did the university receive official confirmation — the UNESCO certificate itself?
— We held the official ceremony on 15 December of that same year. The Head of the Secretariat of the Ukrainian National Commission for UNESCO brought the certificate and presented it to the Rector in the Marble Hall. Many distinguished guests were present, including representatives from the embassies of Israel, Poland and Romania, and a delegation from the University of Suceava.
It was a victory for our entire team: architects, historians, geographers and biologists. People worked through the nights without a day off.