Historic village calls for Unesco status to be revoked after tourist influx

Residents of a village in Slovakia have called for its Unesco World Heritage status to be revoked after an overwhelming influx of tourists.

Vlkolínec, an intact medieval settlement of 45 painted buildings in the Carpathian mountains, has been a listed Unesco World Heritage Site since 1993.

Up to 100,000 tourists visit the village’s traditional log-built architecture each year, The Slovak Spectator reports.

According to Unesco: “Vlkolínec represents the region’s best preserved and most complex urban unit of original folk architecture consisting of wooden houses and outbuildings, the wooden bell tower and mural buildings of the church and school.”

Now, locals are calling for Vlkolínec to have its heritage status removed.

One villager told the Mirror: “Unesco has turned us into a tourist ‘zoo’. This supposed honour has become not just a burden – but a living nightmare.”

Only four families remain permanently in the village – amounting to fewer than 20 residents – and claim hordes of tourists often walk through their private gardens and photograph through the windows of their homes.

They say that strict preservation rules for residents under Unesco regulations have compromised their traditional lifestyle.

Anton Sabucha, the oldest resident of Vlkolínec, told Slovakian daily Denník N: “Make sure they remove us from Unesco, we would live better. Due to strict regulations, we cannot raise pets and cultivate crops as we used to.”

The site operates under the “highest form of monument protection”, with new construction forbidden and most buildings in the village protected as “national cultural monuments”, said Unesco.

However, the UN agency does recognise that the village is “vulnerable to the impacts of tourism”.

It said: “The property is vulnerable to the impacts of tourism, interfering with the inhabitants’ everyday life. The settlement’s character has been affected by the increase of temporary residents acquiring property for recreational purposes.”

The Independent has contacted the local tourism officer for comment.

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