Astronomical observatories of Kazan University inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List

On 18 September at its 45th extended session in Saudi Arabia, the World Heritage Committee passed a decision to inscribe Astronomical observatories of Kazan University into the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The work on promotion of the observatories into the World Heritage List was done from 2019 with the support of the Tatarstan Revival Find under supervision of the State Counselor of the republic Mintimer Shaimiev, who is the UNESCO Good Will Ambassador.

It is already the fourth site in Tatarstan inscribed into the UNESCO List together with the Kazan Kremlin (inscribed in 2000), the Bolgar Historical and Archeological Complex ((2014) and the Assumption Cathedral and the monastery of the town-island of Sviyazhsk (2017), which makes Tatarstan the leader in the country in the number of UNESCO sites.

For the first time the idea of inscription of the  Engelgard Astronomical Observatory into the UNESCO List was put forward in 2009 and in 2017 the then Director General of the UNECO Irina Bokova supported this initiative during her visit to Tatarstan.