Culture Ministry wants former communist prisons in Romania to become UNESCO World Heritage sites

The Ministry of Culture wants to include several former communist prisons in Romania on the UNESCO World Heritage list. According to minister Raluca Turcan, the initiative targets the Sighet, Pitești, Jilava, Râmnicu Sărat, and Făgăraş prisons, which are “representative of the phenomenon of communist oppression, they are symbolic places, keeping the memory of the victims of the totalitarian regime.”

Culture minister Turcan said that following discussions held on February 20, the ministry has taken the first steps for the former communist prisons’ inscription in the UNESCO World Heritage.

“The Ministry of Culture, through the efforts of the National Institute of Heritage and the partners involved, has prepared the road map, with concrete scientific and administrative objectives for the completion in accordance with UNESCO's requirements of the enrollment file in Romania's Indicative List for UNESCO World Heritage,” Raluca Turcan said in a post on social media.

Becoming UNESCO World Heritage sites would mean “that the former communist prisons are not forgotten, that they are preserved and enhanced, that they are maintained over time as spaces of memory, learning and reflection.”

(Photo source: Facebook/Raluca Turcan)