The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designates World Heritage Sites of outstanding universal value to cultural or natural heritage which have been nominated by signatories to the 1972 UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Cultural heritage consists of monuments (such as architectural works, monumental sculptures, or inscriptions), groups of buildings, and sites (including archaeological sites). Natural features (consisting of physical and biological formations), geological and physiographical formations (including habitats of threatened species of animals and plants), and natural sites which are important from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage.
For the purposes of this list Eastern Europe is defined according to the United Nations geoscheme: Russia, Belarus, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Bulgaria. , UNESCO has designated 94 World Heritage Sites in these nine countries, termed "state parties" for UNESCO's purposes.
Russia is home to the most inscribed sites with 20 sites in Eastern Europe out of 29 sites in the whole country, two of which are transborder properties. Eight sites are shared between several countries with some of them located partially in Northern or Western Europe: the Curonian Spit (Lithuania and Russia), Caves of Aggtelek Karst and Slovak Karst (Slovakia and Hungary), Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (Germany, Slovakia, Ukraine, Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, and Spain), Belovezhskaya Pushcha / Białowieża Forest (Poland and Belarus), Fertö / Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape (Austria and Hungary), Muskauer Park / Park Mużakowski (Germany and Poland), the Struve Geodetic Arc (ten countries in Northern and Eastern Europe), and Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region (Czech Republic and Germany). Moldova has the lowest number of World Heritage Sites in Eastern Europe, with one being the Struve Geodetic Arc transborder site. The first sites from the region were inscribed in 1978, when the Historic Centre of Kraków and the Wieliczka Salt Mine, both in Poland were chosen during the list's conception. Each year, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee may inscribe new sites on the list, or delist sites that no longer meet the criteria. Some sites, designated "mixed sites," represent both cultural and natural heritage. In Eastern Europe, there are 69 cultural, 8 natural, and no mixed sites.
The World Heritage Committee may also specify that a site is endangered, citing "conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List." None of the sites in Eastern Europe is currently listed as endangered. However, two sites, Wieliczka Salt Mine and the Srebarna Nature Reserve, have formerly been listed as endangered but lost this status subsequently. Danger listing has been considered by UNESCO in a number of cases.
World Heritage Sites UNESCO lists sites under ten criteria; each entry must meet at least one of the criteria. Criteria i through vi are cultural, and vii through x are natural.
+ Site Image LocationThe location only specifies the first-level administrative subdivision. For Russia this would be the subject For Belarus this would be the Oblast For Poland this would be the Voivodeship For the Czech Republic this would be the Region For Slovakia this would be the Region For Hungary this would be the County