Art and cultural monuments are valued and preserved, as they deserve, only when the whole society sees in them the sanctities narrated by ancestors, holiness to be preserved for future generations. Then they are not just sights, they are the living foundation of national culture for centuries to come.
Metropolitan Andrei SheptytskyIntroduction
Protection and preservation of cultural heritage is an important direction of the state's humanitarian policy. At the same time, this is an area of cultural activity where the participation of executive authorities and local self-government bodies is quite significant and responsible.
Protection of cultural heritage remains the most problematic activity in the field of culture, as its objects – “landmarks, buildings, complexes […], as well as territories or water bodies […], other natural, natural-anthropogenic or man-made objects … that have brought to our time value from the archaeological, aesthetic, ethnological, historical, architectural, scientific or artistic point of view and have preserved their authenticity” [Про охорону культурної (On the protection)] – are the most vulnerable to external destructive influences and are often at the intersection of opposing interests of the state as the main subject of preservation of cultural heritage, and interested public organizations and movements, on the one hand, and subjects of economic activity – on the other. At the same time, the institutional and legal support for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Ukraine has certain shortcomings that negatively affect the protection of cultural heritage monuments [Інституційні та правові (Institutional and legal)].
Preservation of cultural heritage as one of the main factors in the formation of Ukrainian national identity, an integral part of the world cultural heritage of mankind is a duty of the state and the public, a responsibility to future generations [Про Рекомендації парламентських (On the recommendations)].