An international conservation group has selected one of Belfast's most historic buildings as one of 21 sites across the world it will fund this year.
The World Monuments Fund says it wants to help make the Assembly Rooms part of the social and cultural life of the city.
Campaigners say the decision will help save one of the city's most significant buildings, which has been likened to Leinster House.
If walls could talk, those of the Assembly Rooms would have quite a few tales to tell.
It was built in 1769 at the junction of four of the city's oldest streets.
A plan for Belfast to become part of the slave trade was rejected at a meeting there in 1786 and six years later it was the venue for the famous Belfast Harp Festival of 1792.
Henry Joy McCracken, one of the leaders of the 1798 Rebellion, was tried and sentenced to death and later hanged a short distance away on High Street on gallows where a Dunnes Stores now stands.
For much of the 20th century it operated as a bank, but its doors closed in 2000 and in the years since its become derelict.
The building was part of a 12 acre site that was to become part of a major new development, but late last year Belfast City Council stepped in and paid more than £2m to bring it back into public ownership.
The World Monuments Fund - which preserves cultural heritage sites - has included the Assembly Rooms in a list of 21 sites across the world that it will support this year.
The organisation has allocated £200,000 to the building as part of the overall spend of £5.2m.
In a statement the WMF said it wants to return the building to the heart of the city's social and cultural life.
"It's fantastic news, we're absolutely delighted," said John Gray of the Assembly Rooms Alliance, which has been campaigning to have it restored and brought back into public use.
"It is of huge historical significance and a really iconic building in Belfast. For years beforehand we had been pointing out how the condition of the building was close to catastrophic. That means that intervention now is very urgent and thankfully it appears to be happening."
The campaigner group said the building's rich past must be reflected in any future development.
"What we want to see is it fulfilling that breadth of spirit in the future, we want to see the Assembly Rooms as a multi-purpose cultural venue in public ownership and I believe that is the city council's objective as well," Mr Gray explained.
"Hopefully we can all work together to achieve that objective."
The World Monuments Fund has said it will undertake essential stabilisation and facade repairs and is commissioning a conservation management plan to ensure the sustainability of the building for future years.
