The City of Tunis, Tunisia, was honored during the 11^th World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities in Sintra, Portugal. The city of Tunis won the Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize for Heritage thanks to its restoration and beautification project of a street circuit entitled “From Zitouna to Sidi Ibrahim”.

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This project, which is sustainable, remarkably offers an alternative to mass tourism and make it possible to raise the awareness of the local population of the value of its habitat, as emphasized by the president of the OWHC, Mr. Harry Brinkman.

Twelve other cities also presented their candidacies, namely Arequipa in Peru, Camagüey in Cuba, Cordoba in Spain, Krakow in Poland, Dubrovnik in Croatia, Kutna Hora in the Czech Republic, Nancy in France, Olinda in Brazil, Porto in Portugal, Québec in Canada, and Segovia in Spain.

Jury members were Bénédicte Selfslagh, Secretary General of ICOMOS, Ms. Kerstin Manz, Programs Specialist at UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre, Ms. Régina Wiala-Zimm, Chief Executive Office for International Relations at the city of Vienna, a city that is a member of the Board of Directors of the OWHC, Mr. Bruno Delas, Project Manager for the city of Lyon, another city that is a member of the Board of Directors of the OWHC, and Mr. Gabriel Lacroix-Dufour, Programs Administrator of the OWHC. The jury particularly valued the quality of the work done in partnership and in consultation based on a close cooperation between the Association de sauvegarde de la Medina de Tunis (ASM), the municipal services and public concession holders. The approach taken took into account the various parameters and intervention constraints on sensitive sites, as well as the association of the population with the implementation and operation of the street circuit.

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The Jean-Paul L’Allier Prize was created in honor of the founding president of the OWHC.  Mayor of Québec City from 1989 to 2005, Mr. Jean-Paul L’Allier is a great unifier who helped bring all the world heritage cities closer together with the creation of the OWHC.

Congratulations to the city of Tunis!

A sincere word of thanks to Mr. Serge Martin, who contributed financially to the realization of the Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize for Heritage.