Ferrara [ferˈraːra], City of the Renaissance, and its Po [po] Delta - Italy
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/733Ferrara, which grew up around a ford over the River Po, became an intellectual and artistic centre that attracted the greatest minds of the Italian Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries. Here, Piero della Francesca, Jacopo Bellini and Andrea Mantegna decorated the palaces of the House of Este. The humanist concept of the 'ideal city' came to life here in the neighbourhoods built from 1492 onwards by Biagio Rossetti according to the new principles of perspective. The completion of ... WHS May 8, 2024, 7:19 AM cowpoke
Kutná Hora [ˈkutnaː ˈɦora]: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec - Czechia
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/732Kutná Hora developed as a result of the exploitation of the silver mines. In the 14th century it became a royal city endowed with monuments that symbolized its prosperity. The Church of St Barbara, a jewel of the late Gothic period, and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec, which was restored in line with the Baroque taste of the early 18th century, were to influence the architecture of central Europe. These masterpieces today form part of a well-preserved medieval urban fabric with some particul WHS May 8, 2024, 7:16 AM cowpoke
Hanseatic [ˌhæn.siˈæt.ɪk] Town of Visby [ˈvɪsːbyː] - Sweden
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/731A former Viking site on the island of Gotland, Visby was the main centre of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic from the 12th to the 14th century. Its 13th-century ramparts and more than 200 warehouses and wealthy merchants' dwellings from the same period make it the best-preserved fortified commercial city in northern Europe. 2024-05-08 WHS May 8, 2024, 7:14 AM cowpoke
Crespi d'Adda [ˈkrɛspi ˈdad.da] - Italy
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/730Crespi d'Adda in Capriate San Gervasio in Lombardy is an outstanding example of the 19th- and early 20th-century 'company towns' built in Europe and North America by enlightened industrialists to meet the workers' needs. The site is still remarkably intact and is partly used for industrial purposes, although changing economic and social conditions now threaten its survival. 2024-05-07 WHS May 7, 2024, 6:52 AM cowpoke
Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar [ˈvaɪmɑr], Dessau [ˈdɛsaʊ] and Bernau [ˈbɛʁnaʊ] - Germany
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/729Between 1919 and 1933 the Bauhaus movement revolutionized architectural and aesthetic thinking and practice in the 20th century. The Bauhaus buildings in Weimar, Dessau and Bernau are fundamental representatives of Classical Modernism, directed towards a radical renewal of architecture and design. This property, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1996, originally comprised buildings located in Weimar (Former Art School, the Applied Art School and the Haus Am Horn) and Dessau (Bauh WHS May 7, 2024, 6:50 AM cowpoke
Old and New Towns of Edinburgh - United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/728Edinburgh has been the Scottish capital since the 15th century. It has two distinct areas: the Old Town, dominated by a medieval fortress; and the neoclassical New Town, whose development from the 18th century onwards had a far-reaching influence on European urban planning. The harmonious juxtaposition of these two contrasting historic areas, each with many important buildings, is what gives the city its unique character. 2024-05-07 WHS May 7, 2024, 6:48 AM cowpoke
Historic Centre of Naples [ˈna.pɔ.li] - Italy
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/726From the Neapolis founded by Greek settlers in 470 B.C. to the city of today, Naples has retained the imprint of the successive cultures that emerged in Europe and the Mediterranean basin. This makes it a unique site, with a wealth of outstanding monuments such as the Church of Santa Chiara and the Castel Nuovo. 2024-05-06 WHS May 6, 2024, 7:39 AM cowpoke
Caves of Aggtelek [ˈɒɡːtɛlɛk] Karst and Slovak [ˈslovɑk] Karst - Hungary, Slovakia
(Karst [kɑrst]: landscape underlain by limestone which has been eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes and other characteristic landforms.)
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/725The variety of formations and the fact that they are concentrated in a restricted area means that the 712 caves currently identified make up a typical temperate-zone karstic system. Because they display an extremely rare combination of tropical and glacial climatic effects, they make it possible to study geological history over tens of millions of years. 2024-05-06 WHS May 6, 2024, 7:37 AM cowpoke
Medieval Monuments in Kosovo [ˈkɔsɔvɔ] - Serbia
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/724The four edifices of the site reflect the high points of the Byzantine-Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, with its distinct style of wall painting, which developed in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries. The Dečani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan Dečanski and is also his mausoleum. The Patriarchate of Peć Monastery is a group of four domed churches featuring series of wall paintings. The 13th-century frescoes of the Church of Holy Apostles are WHS May 6, 2024, 7:33 AM cowpoke
Cultural Landscape of Sintra [ˈsĩtɾɐ] - Portugal
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/723In the 19th century Sintra became the first centre of European Romantic architecture. Ferdinand II turned a ruined monastery into a castle where this new sensitivity was displayed in the use of Gothic, Egyptian, Moorish and Renaissance elements and in the creation of a park blending local and exotic species of trees. Other fine dwellings, built along the same lines in the surrounding <em>serra</em> , created a unique combination of parks and gardens which influenced the development o... WHS May 5, 2024, 8:14 AM cowpoke
Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras [ˌkɔrdlˈɛrəz] - Philippines
Cordilleras (a system or group of parallel mountain ranges together with the intervening plateaus and other features, especially in the Andes or the Rockies.)
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/722For 2,000 years, the high rice fields of the Ifugao have followed the contours of the mountains. The fruit of knowledge handed down from one generation to the next, and the expression of sacred traditions and a delicate social balance, they have helped to create a landscape of great beauty that expresses the harmony between humankind and the environment. 2024-05-05 WHS May 5, 2024, 8:05 AM cowpoke
Carlsbad Caverns [ˈkɑrlzˌbæd ˈkævərnz] National Park - United States of America
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/721This karst landscape in the state of New Mexico comprises over 80 recognized caves. They are outstanding not only for their size but also for the profusion, diversity and beauty of their mineral formations. Lechuguilla Cave stands out from the others, providing an underground laboratory where geological and biological processes can be studied in a pristine setting. 2024-05-05 WHS May 5, 2024, 7:59 AM cowpoke
Messel [ˈmɛsəl] Pit Fossil Site - Germany
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/720Messel Pit is the richest site in the world for understanding the living environment of the Eocene, between 57 million and 36 million years ago. In particular, it provides unique information about the early stages of the evolution of mammals and includes exceptionally well-preserved mammal fossils, ranging from fully articulated skeletons to the contents of stomachs of animals of this period. 2024-05-04 WHS May 4, 2024, 8:11 AM cowpoke
Virgin Komi [ˈkomʲɪ] Forests - Russian Federation
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/719The Virgin Komi Forests cover 3.28 million ha of tundra and mountain tundra in the Urals, as well as one of the most extensive areas of virgin boreal forest remaining in Europe. This vast area of conifers, aspens, birches, peat bogs, rivers and natural lakes has been monitored and studied for over 50 years. It provides valuable evidence of the natural processes affecting biodiversity in the taiga. 2024-05-04 WHS May 4, 2024, 8:11 AM cowpoke
Okapi [ɔ.ka.pi] Wildlife Reserve - Democratic Republic of the Congo (Speaks French)
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/718The Okapi Wildlife Reserve occupies about one-fifth of the Ituri forest in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Congo river basin, of which the reserve and forest are a part, is one of the largest drainage systems in Africa. The reserve contains threatened species of primates and birds and about 5,000 of the estimated 30,000 okapi surviving in the wild. It also has some dramatic scenery, including waterfalls on the Ituri and Epulu rivers. The reserve is inhabited by tradit WHS May 4, 2024, 8:11 AM cowpoke
Historic Centre of Siena [ˈsjɛna] - Italy
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/717Siena is the embodiment of a medieval city. Its inhabitants pursued their rivalry with Florence right into the area of urban planning. Throughout the centuries, they preserved their city's Gothic appearance, acquired between the 12th and 15th centuries. During this period the work of Duccio, the Lorenzetti brothers and Simone Martini was to influence the course of Italian and, more broadly, European art. The whole city of Siena, built around the Piazza del Campo, was devised as a work of ar... WHS May 3, 2024, 6:39 AM cowpoke
Rapa Nui National Park - Chile
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/715Rapa Nui, the indigenous name of Easter Island, bears witness to a unique cultural phenomenon. A society of Polynesian origin that settled there c. A.D. 300 established a powerful, imaginative and original tradition of monumental sculpture and architecture, free from any external influence. From the 10th to the 16th century this society built shrines and erected enormous stone figures known as <em>moai</em> , which created an unrivalled cultural landscape that continues to fascinate ... WHS May 3, 2024, 6:37 AM cowpoke
Rock Paintings of the Sierra de San Francisco - Mexico
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/714From c. 100 B.C. to A.D. 1300, the Sierra de San Francisco (in the El Vizcaino reserve, in Baja California) was home to a people who have now disappeared but who left one of the most outstanding collections of rock paintings in the world. They are remarkably well-preserved because of the dry climate and the inaccessibility of the site. Showing human figures and many animal species and illustrating the relationship between humans and their environment, the paintings reveal a highly sophisticated WHS May 3, 2024, 6:36 AM cowpoke
City of Vicenza [viˈtʃɛntsa] and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto [veˈnɛːto] - Italy
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/712Founded in the 2nd century B.C. in northern Italy, Vicenza prospered under Venetian rule from the early 15th to the end of the 18th century. The work of Andrea Palladio (1508–80), based on a detailed study of classical Roman architecture, gives the city its unique appearance. Palladio's urban buildings, as well as his villas, scattered throughout the Veneto region, had a decisive influence on the development of architecture. His work inspired a distinct architectural style known as Palladia... WHS May 2, 2024, 7:43 AM cowpoke
Los Katíos [kaˈtios] National Park - Colombia
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/711Extending over 72,000 ha in north-western Colombia, Los Katios National Park comprises low hills, forests and humid plains. An exceptional biological diversity is found in the park, which is home to many threatened animal species, as well as many endemic plants. 2024-05-02 WHS May 2, 2024, 7:40 AM cowpoke
