Bucharest, 21 March /Rompres/ - The Romanian Athenaeum has been inscribed on the list of the Label of European Heritage sights, an event marked by the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the outer walls of the building.

After it has been considered a symbol of Romanian culture, the Athenaeum is now becoming a European symbol,' Romanian Minister of Culture and Religious affairs Adrian Iorgulescu told the unveiling ceremony.

He added that various important cultural events have been held this week in Romania to commemorate 50 years since the death of sculptor Constantin Brancusi, 50 years since the signing of the 1957 Treaty of Rome establishing the European Community, as well as the inclusion of the Athenaeum, 'a gem of Romanian architecture,' in the European cultural heritage list.

The commemorative plaque is blue, with a white symbol of the Triumphal Arch of Paris and a yellow star etched in the middle. The plaque carries the inscription European Heritage written in Romanian, French and English.

Three more Romanian sights have already been awarded the Label of European Heritage attesting to their belonging to the common European cultural heritage. They are the Heroes' Road of Targu Jiu, the Cantacuzino Palace of Bucharest and the Histria Castel.

The initiative of drawing up the list originated with the ministers of culture from France, Spain and Hungary and it became public at a meeting of European Union ministers of culture in Budapest, November 2005. In 2006 and early 2007, experts met to consolidate the mechanism for the functioning of the label. The full mechanism as well as a first set of historical sites to be inscribed on the list were approved at the February 13, 2007 informal meeting of European ministers of culture and media in Berlin.

In order to be awarded the Label of European Heritage, any cultural asset has to qualify as a witness of European history and meet at least one of the following three criteria: it should be a site of cultural and historic interest of special relevance to the EU member states; it should be an architectural work, a building or structure emblematic in terms of history, arts, sciences or ideas; to be a cultural site or landscape, a land, lakeshore or seashore archaeological site.

Among the most representative sites on the list of European heritage are the Cluny Abbey; the house where Robert Schuman, a founding member of the EU, was born; the Honour Court of the Popes' Palace of Avignon; the Acropolis; the Goethe House of Frankfurt and the memorial church of the Holy Spirit (Sv. Duh) from Javorca, Slovenia.

[Source: Romanian National News Agency ROMPRES ]