Slovakia's cultural heritage under threat

The Slovakian town of Levoča with its medieval town centre has been added to Unesco's World Heritage List. The liberal daily Sme says it deserves this honour but criticises the way the country treats its cultural heritage in general: "In the neighbouring Czech Republic there is a man like Václav Havel who has the courage to say that the protection of Czech landscapes must be a top strategic priority, even more important than Nato membership. Who would say such a thing here in Slovakia? Instead we are witnessing how our landscapes are being systematically taken apart. … Thanks to the lack of culture of our political representatives our admirable cultural landscape is becoming a landscape of unculturedness. … As a result our natural, cultural and historical values are more threatened than in the times of the two world wars and more than they ever have been since the industrialisation and collectivisation of the 1950s. Our landscapes are being turned into building sites, cement tracks, logistical centres, billboards and waste disposal sites."

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