UNESCO met until July 31 to decide on the new World Heritage Sites for 2021, awarding the three spa towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Ems and Bad Kissingen as well as the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. But there are also losers. You can find everything about the new World Heritage Sites here.

UNESCO met until July 31 to decide on the new World Heritage Sites for 2021, awarding the three German spa towns of Baden-Baden, Bad Ems and Bad Kissingen as well as the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt. But there were also losers. For the third time in history, the UN organization has withdrawn the title from a city – namely Liverpool. You can find everything about the UNESCO World Heritage Sites 2021 here.

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee met in 2021 from July 16 to 31. This year, the 44th session was chaired by those responsible in Fuzhou, China. The meeting was broadcast live on the internet. The topics and responsibilities of the committee are firstly the nominations for the World Heritage List, secondly the state of conservation and protection of numerous sites and thirdly the further development of the World Heritage program. More than 40 sites were nominated in 2021. These included, for example, the rainforests and wetlands of the Colchis region in Georgia, as well as the mining landscape of Roșia Montană in Romania and the estate of landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Germany, on the other hand, was involved with these five nominations:

The committee also reviewed the state of conservation of 258 World Heritage sites. 53 of these sites are officially endangered World Heritage sites. Armed conflicts, climate change, natural disasters and construction projects threaten the United Nations World Heritage Sites. The Committee therefore discussed individual measures, programs and international funding projects to support these World Heritage sites.

The World Heritage Committee discussed the situation of the following sites:

In addition, the Committee is addressing the question of whether the Selous Game Reserve (Tanzania) and the maritime trading town of Liverpool should be removed from the World Heritage List.

An overview of the new UNESCO World Heritage Sites

Ancient beech forests and primeval beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Italy, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic)

Archaeoastronomical complex of Chanquillo (Peru)

Arslan Tepe (Turkey)

As-Salt – a place of tolerance and urban hospitality (Jordan)

Mining landscape Roșia Montană (Romania)

The work of Jože Plečnik in Ljubljana – people-oriented urban design (Slovenia)

Dholavira: A city of Harappan culture (India)

The arcades of Bologna (Italy)

The engineering of Eladio Dieste: Church of Atlántida (Uruguay)

The islands of Amami-Oshima, Tokunoshima, Iriomote and the northern part of the island of Okinawa (Japan)

Franciscan missions in the Sierra Gorda in Querétaro (Mexico)

Getbol, the Korean tidal flats (Republic of Korea)

Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Lower Germanic Limes (Germany, Netherlands)

Dutch water defense lines (Netherlands)

Ivindo National Park (Gabon)

Cordouan Lighthouse (France)

Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt (Germany)

Nice, winter resort of the Riviera (France)

Padua’s fresco cycles from the 14th century (Italy)

Paseo del Prado and Buen Retiro, Landscape of Arts and Sciences (Spain)

Prehistoric sites of the Jomon in northern Japan (Japan)

SchUM sites Speyer, Worms and Mainz (Germany)

Spa (Belgium), Bad Ems, Baden-Baden and Bad Kissingen (Germany), Vichy (France), Montecatini Terme (Italy), Baden near Vienna (Austria), Karlovy Vary, Františkovy Lázně and Mariánské Lázně (Czech Republic) and Bath (United Kingdom).

Temple of Kakatiya Rudreshwara (Ramappa), Telangana (India)

Trans-Iranian Railway (Iran)

Kaeng Krachan forest complex (Thailand)

Rock carvings on Lake Onega and the White Sea (Russian Federation)

Cultural area of Ḥimā (Saudi Arabia)

Quanzhou: market and trading center of the Song-Yuan dynasty (China)

Colchian rainforests and wetlands (Georgia)

Colonies of Mercy (Belgium, Netherlands)

Slate Landscape of North West Wales (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Lower Germanic Limes

Settlements and artificial mummification of the Chinchorro culture in Arica y Parinacota (Chile)

Roberto Burle Marx site (Brazil)

Hawraman/Uramanat cultural landscape (Iran)

Sudanese-style mosques in the northern Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire)

UNESCO World Heritage: Important spa towns in Europe

A total of eleven European cities have now been added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2021 with the new title of “Important European Spa Towns”. Their special significance is due to their architectural opulence and choice of materials, which today define the framework of an urban planning type of spa town. Places developed around healing springs that today are witnesses to a once flourishing spa culture. We present these places in this article and also take a look at other towns that have been awarded the title of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Bad Ems

The Rhineland-Palatinate town on the River Lahn was once considered one of the most famous bathing resorts in Germany. Tsar Alexander II and the later German Emperor Wilhelm I are two of the illustrious guests who exchanged their uniforms for bathing robes here. The insignia of the spa town – Kurhaus, Colonnades, Kursaal, Casino and Kurpark – line the banks of the Lahn like a cast of water, according to the UN organization.

Baden-Baden

Impressive buildings of outstanding importance for spa architecture were erected in the town on the River Oos during the heyday of spa culture. These include the Trinkhalle, designed by Heinrich Hübsch, with its richly decorated lobby. The casino, redesigned in the French neo-baroque style by patron Jacques Bénazet in the 19th century, is also one of them. The Bénazet family’s donations made Baden-Baden “the summer capital of Europe” at the time, according to Lisa Poetschki, Site Manager of the World Heritage Site.

Bad Kissingen

Similar to entering a church, the sublimity of Max Littmann’s Trink- und Wandelhalle slows you down, writes the UN organization. As a result, the building broke a few of the superlatives of the time. After all, it was the largest reinforced concrete building of its kind, the first enclosed drinking hall. It is still the largest drinking hall in Europe today. The central landmark of the town and further evidence of the spa culture of the 20th century is the Regentenbau, the most magnificent building in Bad Kissingen.

Baden near Vienna in Austria, Bath in England, Montecatini in Italy, Vichy in France, Spa in Belgium and the Czech towns of Karlsbad, Franzensbad and Marienbad are also among the eleven important spa towns in Europe listed by UNESCO.

Other artistically and architecturally significant cities in Germany have also been awarded the UNESCO seal:

Darmstadt

An early 20th century ensemble is located on a hill on the edge of Darmstadt’s city center. The buildings erected by artists are described by the director of the Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt Institute as the “cradle of the Bauhaus”. Between 1901 and 1914, the Mathildenhöhe provided internationally influential impulses in architecture and modern art. Here in Darmstadt were the first buildings to break away from the ornate Art Nouveau style. Clear lines and minimalist decoration thus led the way into a new age of architecture.

SchUM cities on the Rhine

Due to their outstanding importance for European Jewry in the Middle Ages, the cities of Speyer, Worms and Mainz – Shpira, Warmaisa and Magenza in Hebrew – have been declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. Some of the oldest evidence of Jewish life in Germany can be found here. The history of the synagogues, Talmud schools, women’s schools, ritual baths and cemeteries in the ShUM cities dates back to the 10th century. The design of the buildings shaped the architecture of Jewish buildings in large parts of Europe.

Since the last meeting of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, however, the historic port city of Liverpool can no longer call itself a World Heritage Site. Planned construction projects such as “Liverpool Waters” and the development of the Bramley Moore Dock since the nomination in 2004 would endanger the historic character of the port area too much. In the history of UNESCO World Heritage, the title has only been withdrawn twice before: Oman was removed from the list in 2007 for reducing the size of an antelope sanctuary by 90 percent, and the cultural landscape of Dresden’s Elbe Valley in 2009 due to the construction of the Waldschlösschen Bridge.

Also interesting: Find out why the planned highway tunnel under one of the UK’s most famous sights – the UNESCO World Heritage Site Stonehenge – will not be built here.

A new audio walk app from the Berlinische Galerie now makes it possible to discover Berlin architecture from the 1980s Berlin has a unique density of buildings from the 1980s, the significance of which needs to be examined after more than 30 years. Their diverse and colorful architectural language challenged previous notions of a modern living environment. Often labeled […]

A new audio walk app from the Berlinische Galerie now allows you to discover Berlin architecture from the 1980s

Berlin has a unique density of buildings from the 1980s whose significance needs to be reviewed after more than 30 years. Their diverse and colorful architectural language challenged previous notions of a modern living environment. Often labeled “postmodernism”, it is characterized by the use of building types and stylistic devices from the past as well as the testing of alternative lifestyles in the big city.

Since March, the Berlinische Galerie has been showing the exhibition “Anything Goes? Berlin architecture of the 1980s”. For the first time, the show examines what and who shaped the buildings and visions developed for East and West Berlin in the last decade before the fall of the Wall. As many of the locations are in the immediate vicinity of the Berlinische Galerie, the museum has developed a free audio walk app that brings the exhibition to life in the urban space.

The app tells the stories of the buildings at their original locations. Under the motto “Out into the city”, three routes lead to the important buildings of the International Building Exhibition Berlin 1987 (IBA 87) in Kreuzberg and to the postmodern buildings in West and East Berlin along Friedrichstrasse. The three 30-minute routes are marked on a digital map for easy navigation. The audio contributions can be listened to from any location and are available in German and English.

The Berlinische Galerie’s audio walks on Berlin architecture of the 1980s can be found here.