13 new UNESCO World Heritage Sites

What do the Via Appia in Italy, gold mines in Japan and a cave complex in Malaysia have in common? They have all been designated as new UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee met in New Delhi from July 21 to 31. At the 46th session, in addition to deliberations on the new inscription of World Heritage Sites, discussions also took place on the preservation and protection of the heritage of humanity and the further development of the program. Germany can also look forward to two new entries on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

At this year’s meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, the panel added a total of 13 new sites to the World Heritage List. In addition to two German candidates, one of which is a transnational World Heritage Site with Denmark, the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sites in Europe, Asia and Africa were also inscribed. Italy, Burkina Faso, India, Jordan, the Palestinian Territories, Ethiopia, France, China, Iran, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Romania, the Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Thailand are among the lucky ones. UNESCO’s selection covers a broad spectrum: in addition to well-known sites such as the Via Appia, also known as the “Queen of Roads”, which runs from Rome to Brindisi, the list also includes lesser-known places such as the gold mines on the island of Sado in Japan. The gold mines are important witnesses to the history of gold mining off Japan’s west coast. The first mines for the extraction of the coveted gold and silver were documented as early as the 12th century. The improvement in mining technology, which was adopted from China and Korea, made Japan one of the world’s leading gold producers in the 17th century. The development essentially took place in two phases and can still be traced today on Sado by means of historical shafts, processing plants and residential buildings. However, the history of the gold mines also has dark spots, with hundreds of thousands of Koreans working in them from 1910 to 1945, often under dramatic conditions and under duress. Japan declared at the meeting of the World Heritage Committee that it would shed light on this history.
Valuable remains of a human settlement can be found in the cave complex in Niah National Park on Borneo. The prehistoric finds are up to 50,000 years old and provide evidence of the transition from hunter-gatherer cultures to cultures that practiced agriculture. The early farmers of Southeast Asia cultivated vegetables as well as rice. The finds in the cave complex still bear witness to this today and allow scientists to gain insights into the early history of the region.

In addition to Germany, South Africa and Romania each received two new World Heritage titles. In South Africa, the archaeologically significant sites of Diepkloof Rock Shelter, Pinnacle Point and the Sibudu Cave received the award and together form the World Heritage Site “The Origin of Modern Man: The Pleistocene Settlement Sites of South Africa’. Another site made up of several locations is “Human Rights, Liberation and Reconciliation: Sites of the Legacy of Nelson Mandela”, which is dedicated to the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Romania can also look forward to two new World Heritage Sites: the borders of the Roman Empire, which extend over a distance of more than 1000 kilometers and document the presence of the Romans in south-eastern Europe. The province of Dacia was the only Roman province that lay entirely north of the Danube. It was protected by a complex system of military installations and civilian settlements. The remains still preserved today offer important insights into the history of the Roman sphere of influence and bear witness to Roman power. In Târgu Jiu, a monumental ensemble of sculptures commemorates the defense of the city by a vigilante group during the First World War. The sculptor Constantin Brâncuși designed the three elements of the ensemble, which were erected between 1937 and 1938. The works “The Table of Silence”, “Gate of the Kiss” and “Infinite Column” are milestones of modern art in public space. This artistic masterpiece captivates with its abstract simplicity and is harmoniously embedded in the landscape.

The settlement of the Moravian Church in Christiansfeld in Jutland, Denmark, has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 2015. This year, UNESCO also inscribed the settlements in Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, Gracehill in Northern Ireland and Herrnhut in Saxony, which were also founded by the religious community. The history of the Moravian Church, also known as the Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, began in Saxony. It is known worldwide for its missionary work, simple way of life and the “Watchwords”. The “Watchwords” are an interdenominational collection of Bible texts and other Christian texts intended for everyday life. The beliefs of the Protestant free church include the equality of all people before God, practical everyday piety, missionary zeal, faith tolerance and simplicity in the church services, which are community-oriented. It has also developed a special architectural style that also emphasizes simplicity. It also has its own unit of measurement, so doors from Berthelsdorf Castle also fit into the buildings of the Herrenhut congregations in the USA or Northern Ireland. Berthelsdorf Castle was rebuilt in the Baroque style by Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, the founder of the free church. The building, which von Zinzendorf had rebuilt in 1721, also anticipates the simple architectural style of the Moravian Church. A look into the church and the church hall makes this clear once again: simple elegance, dominated by the color white with restrained stucco work and simple white pews characterize it. A large Herrnhut star and a brass chandelier complete the interior. The large organ is of particular importance. Pastor Peter Vogt of the congregation in Herrnhut says: “We have a spirituality of the ear: a piety that values listening, the spoken word, singing and music.” It is also striking that the pastor does not speak from a pulpit or an altar, as is the case in Lutheran churches – they sit at a simple table. According to the pastor, this is to avoid a sermon from above. Simplicity is also the keyword at the cemetery. The Herrnhut community refer to the final resting place of their deceased as “Gottesacker”. This term is based on the belief of the free church that the deceased, like seeds in a field, await the day of resurrection. The simple gravestones are set flat into the ground and are intended to symbolize that all people are equal before God. Simplicity also prevails in the cemetery, so there are no flowers, candles or pictures of the deceased. Men’s and women’s graves are strictly separated by a central axis that runs along the cemetery.
UNESCO considered the criteria iii: “constitute a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to an existing or vanished culture” and iv: “constitute an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which symbolizes one or more significant periods in the history of mankind” to be fulfilled.

The residence ensemble in Schwerin can also boast the World Heritage title. It is thanks to the courageous decision of Friedrich Franz II, who was just 19 years old, that this came about. In 1842, he took over the leadership of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and became Grand Duke of Mecklenburg after the death of his father. His father Paul Friedrich had ordered the construction of a palace for the family in Schwerin’s “Old Garden” after the family had decided to return from Ludwigslust to the seat of government in Schwerin. Frederick Franz II halted the construction and decided to turn the outdated Schwerin Palace, which was in dire need of renovation, into the family seat. However, the palace was not only intended to serve as the family seat alone, but also to emphasize the dynastic importance of the family. The family history stretched back to the Middle Ages and was the most important asset of the ruling dynasty. In the 19th century, the house had no significant economic, military or political power. However, the long and unbroken line of ancestors and ruling tradition was an asset that could be exploited. Marriages with other dynasties resulted in close family ties, such as with the Prussian royal family and the Russian tsarist court.
Careful staging ensured that the importance of the family was emphasized. The so-called Throne Apartment, a typical 19th-century room sequence with three rooms that build on and coordinate each other, is a good example of this. Visitors to the palace would first pass through the relatively simple-looking “palace gallery”, in which the numerous family palaces were displayed, before entering the ancestral gallery. Here, life-size portraits of all the ruling and reigning dukes of the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin were presented – and have been since the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, paintings of the ancestors from the 13th and 14th centuries were commissioned especially for this purpose, as there were no paintings available. Representations of tombs and church paintings were used for orientation. After a parade through this wood-paneled room, the Grand Duke was finally presented in the throne room. There, the “strategy of overwhelming” was applied, as Ralf Weingart, the director of the Schwerin Palace Museum, calls it. The room, which was lavishly decorated with gilded details, coats of arms, marble columns, sculptures and paintings, extends over 1.5 floors. The throne is magnificently staged, crowned by a canopy and resting in a room adorned with ceiling paintings depicting divine and secular authorities of the dynasty. The room’s wooden parquet flooring is studded with mother-of-pearl inlays and to the left and right of the throne are larger-than-life portraits of the Grand Duke and his wife. The entire staging serves the sole purpose of demonstrating that the House of Mecklenburg-Schwerin is outstanding both historically and in the present day. As an ensemble of historicism, a wide variety of styles are used side by side and combined to form a harmonious whole. The buildings, which in addition to the palace also include a theater, three churches, military buildings, a railroad station, a former school for court officials, various palaces and residential buildings as well as a stable for the sick, are complemented by a garden designed by Peter Joseph Lenné in the style of an English landscape garden. A special feature of the ensemble is its use: in addition to museum use of the throne room, it also serves the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament.
The next meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee will take place from July 6 to 16, 2025 in Bulgaria, where a decision will also be made on the Bavarian Palace Administration’s application with the royal castles of Ludwig II. You can read more about this in the current issue of Restauro 5/24.