Eduardo González
Spain has contributed 1.8 million dollars (almost 1.7 million euros) to UNESCO to preserve artistic heritage in Ukraine, with special attention to Lviv (Ukraine), a city declared World Heritage that is currently in serious danger. because of the Russian invasion.
This was announced by the Government on January 24 in response to a written parliamentary question from the Popular Group in Congress on the actions carried out and the budget designated through the Minister of Culture to safeguard cultural heritage in Ukraine.
According to the Executive, Spain participates, through the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), in the Spain-UNESCO Trust Fund for the development of the Culture for Peace and Resilience project. Creation of a cultural Hub in Lviv. Lviv has the largest concentration of architectural monuments in Ukraine and its historic center is on the UNESCO World Heritage list. In 2009, it was declared the cultural capital of Ukraine.
With an investment of 1.5 million dollars and an execution period of 24 months, “this project is creating a pilot cultural center in the form of a UNESCO Club, which will be followed by future antenna clubs in other cities in Ukraine, which will be “It will be located in Lviv, a city declared World Heritage by UNESCO and which is today threatened by war.”
Additionally, in 2023, Spain increased its investment in UNESCO by $300,000 (almost 280,000 euros) through the Trust Fund for Ukraine. Thanks to this investment, an agreement has been signed to finance a position of Spanish staff stationed in Lviv “which will aim to optimize projects for the preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage.” “It is expected to begin developing its functions at the beginning of February 2024,” it adds.
On February 2, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, received the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay, at La Moncloa, with whom he discussed, among other matters, Spanish participation in the project for the creation of a cultural center in Lviv.
Other initiatives
The initiatives developed by Spain to help preserve Ukrainian artistic heritage have been channeled through the AECID, the Ministry of Culture, the National Prado Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum.
These initiatives include an exhibition at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (between November 29, 2022 and May 2, 2023) on 70 works of Ukrainian artistic heritage, the installation of two canvases on the facades of the Prado Museum ( on the occasion of International Museum Day, May 22, 2022) with the colors of the Ukrainian flag and the names of five Ukrainian museums (in addition to the incorporation of Ukrainian among the languages available in their audio guides) and the granting of free entry to state museums for all applicants or residents for asylum or international protection, a measure that was extended during the week of June 20 to 24, 2023 (on the occasion of International Refugee Day) and that could be repeated in 2024.
The Government has also offered international collaboration in different matters related to this matter, such as the cooperation of specialized personnel from the Cultural Heritage Institute of Spain for their participation in international missions or the use of the National Emergency and Risk Management Plan to help in the restoration of damaged real estate heritage through a digital tool, developed in March 2022, for the collection of data and evaluation of the damage suffered by the affected cultural assets.
