Gunsan City, final selection for World Heritage registration promotion research support project

(Gunsan = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jin-bang = Gunsan City, Jeollabuk-do, announced on the 17th that it was finally selected for the ‘World Heritage Strategic Registration Promotion (Preliminary Tentative List) Research Support Project’ hosted by the National Heritage Administration.

Accordingly, we will systematically identify the historical and academic value of Gunsan's modern cultural heritage and begin full-scale preparations for future listing as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

This selection is significant in that it is the first official start to shed new light on Gunsan's modern cultural heritage, which has been preserved and utilized in the region, within the flow of East Asian and world modern history, and to systematically study its potential as a world heritage site.

Since the opening of the port in 1899 (3rd year of Gwangmu of the Korean Empire), Gunsan has grown into a modern city with railroads, roads, financial and commercial facilities, warehouses, industrial facilities, and residential spaces centered on the port.

Currently, in Gunsan's inner port and original downtown, this process of urban formation and change remains intensively in various modern cultural heritages and urban spaces.

In particular, Gunsan's modern cultural heritage has high historical and academic research value in that it goes beyond the value of individual buildings and allows us to examine the structure and changes of a modern city where 'ports, railroads, warehouses, finance, commerce, and urban space' are organically connected.

With the selection of this contest as the starting point, the city plans to gradually promote ▲ basic research and data systemization of modern cultural heritage, ▲ comparative study of similar heritage sites at home and abroad, ▲ discovery and establishment of Outstanding Universal Value (OUV), ▲ review of the scope and core components of the heritage, and ▲ establishment of a network of domestic and international academics and experts.

In particular, focusing on the question, 'What meaning does Gunsan's modern history have in the flow of world modern history?', we plan to identify the originality and universality of Gunsan's historical and cultural resources and gradually lay the academic foundation for future World Heritage tentative list registration and main registration.

Lee Yong-jin, head of the city's culture and arts department, said, "This selection is the first step in looking at Gunsan's modern cultural heritage from a new global perspective and systematically researching its value. We will faithfully identify the unique historical value of Gunsan's modern history and develop it into a heritage that people around the world can sympathize with and share together."