Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and Germany jointly submitted a nomination proposal to UNESCO, to declare a number of fortress ruins by the river Danube, which has served as a natural borderline of the Roman Empire, a part of the World Heritage sites.

The joint proposal nominates 98 sites along 1500 kilometers of the Danube, including legionary camps, several watch towers and other military facilities and Hungarian Roman forts, namely Tokod, Visegrád, Budapest-Aquincum and Paks-Lussonium. According to Csaba Latorcai, Deputy State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office, the programme will be coordinated by Hungary. The bid will be evaluated by UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in June 2019.

In January 2017, Budapest hosted an international conference on the extension of the UNESCO World Heritage site comprising with the Roman Empire’s border line. Conservation experts by Hungary and nine other European nations met to coordinate their strategies for submitting their joint application to the UNESCO. The main objective of the nomination is to protect the Limes heritage from destruction, as – after surviving since antiquity – the remains are more threatened than ever before, because of rapid urban and rural development.

The ‘Roman Limes’ represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its greatest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched over 5,000 km from the Atlantic coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast. The remains of the Limes today consist of vestiges of built walls, ditches, forts, fortresses, watchtowers and civilian settlements.

via Hungary Matters, Unesco

featured photo: Roman fort in Lussonium / Paks (photo: Tamás Retkes)