Congratulations to the city of St. Petersburg, Russia, for its project Redevelopment of industrial cultural heritage sites and their territories for public projects, winner of the Jean-Paul-L’Alllier Prize for Heritage, 2019 edition.

Dr. Alexey Mikhaylov, Deputy chairman of the Committee for state preservation of historical monuments for the Government of St. Petersburg, was awarded a certificate of honour by the Secretary General of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), Mr. Denis Ricard, during a ceremony organized within the 15th World Congress of the OWHC, which was held in Krakow, Poland.

The city of St. Petersburg has been awarded for its ambitious project of restoration and reuse of old industrial buildings in the historic center and its adjacent neighborhoods. Most of the industrial buildings of this “industrial belt”, or “gray belt”, are examples of amazing styles such as Art Nouveau, “brick style” and constructivism. Thus, the creation of the “Gray Belt Redevelopment” program has made it possible to find new modern functions for these industrial monuments, to restore them and to open them to the population and visitors. This large-scale intervention was also carried out in partnership with the local communities and had a positive impact on the economic, social and cultural levels.

Like its previous editions, the prize aroused great interest and seven finalists were selected for this sixth edition: Cidade Velha (Cabo-Verde), Ibiza (Spain), Icherisheher (Azerbaijan), Krakow (Poland), Querétaro (Mexico), Tunis (Tunisia) and St. Petersburg (Russia).

Their evaluations were done professionally and objectively by a jury of six people, namely: Mr. Samir Abdulac from Paris (France), Vice-President of the International Committee on Historic Towns and Villages (CIVVIH) at ICOMOS, Ms. Sofia Avgerinou-Kolonias from Athens (Greece), Honorary Member and former President of CIVVIH, Mr. Michael Turner from Tel-Aviv (Israel), Adviser to the Director of UNESCO World Heritage Center; Ms. Regina Wiala-Zimm, International Relations Officer for the City of Vienna (Austria), Mr. Jahyun Jang from Gyeongju (Korea), Regional Coordinator of the OWHC Asia-Pacific Regional Secretariat, and Mr. Denis Ricard, Secretary General of the OWHC.

Their choice was based on four criteria:

• the exemplary nature of the project for the conservation of urban cultural heritage;
• the involvement of local stakeholders and the partnership development process;
• the concrete outcomes of the project on local communities;
• the pedagogical impact of the project and its educational and enrichment value for the international community.

The Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize was created in honor of the founding president of the OWHC, Mr. Jean-Paul L’Allier, mayor of the city of Québec from 1989 to 2005.

We present our sincere thanks to Mr. Serge Martin who contributed financially to the realization of the Jean-Paul-L’Allier Prize for Heritage.

Once again, congratulations to the city of St. Petersburg!