Nine new sites, including the cultural district that includes the Prado Museum in Madrid, the European resort towns and the historic district of the Canton of China, have been added to the World Heritage List at a meeting of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). ) World Heritage Committee in Fuzhou, China.
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Madrid’s historic Paseo del Prado and nearby Buen Retiro Park have developed into a 200-hectare cultural area since the street was built in the 16th century. The area is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Spanish capital. The 120-hectare park combines different styles of 19th century garden architecture. The area is home to the Royal Botanic Gardens, and the street connects the heart of the Spanish art world, the Prado Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and the Queen Sofia Art Center.
Eleven European spa towns have become World Heritage Sites – Baden near Vienna, Spa in Belgium, Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic, Frantiskovy Lazne, Mariinsky Lazne and Vichy in France, Bad Ems in Germany, Baden-Baden and Bad Kissingen, Montecatini in Italy England , Bath is a joint initiative of seven European countries – Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
All the spa towns developed along with their natural healing springs, each representing an international European spa culture that began to emerge from the early 18th century and gave rise to the major international spas of the 20th century that defined those cities’ image through clusters of spa houses.
The historical part of the Chinese canton was one of the largest seaports in the Maritime Empire of the Song and Yuan dynasties (10th-14th centuries) along the Silk Road. The district includes 22 former government buildings, many religious buildings, including an 11th-century mosque, the oldest Islamic building in China, numerous archaeological finds, remnants of ancient sea piers, and traces of iron and pottery of the time.
The Trans-Iranian railway between the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf has also been inscribed on the World Heritage List.
The railway cuts two mountains, many rivers, highlands, forests and lowlands. Its construction lasted 11 years – from 1927 to 1939 – and the 1,400 km railway was made possible thanks to the successful cooperation of the then Iranian government and 43 construction companies from many countries. In some areas, huge mountain areas had to be cut down, 174 great bridges, 186 smaller bridges, and 224 tunnels had to be built.
The Bamapa Temple in India has also become a World Heritage Site in the village of Palampet, 200 km northeast of Hyderabad. It was built as the limestone goddess Siva from 1213, and its construction lasted about 40 years. The temple statues evoke the customs of the Kakatigan culture (1123–1323) and the dance culture of the region.
The more than 400-year-old Cordoan Lighthouse on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Gironde River is also a World Heritage Site.
The tower is a masterpiece of nautical cues, built by architect Louis de Foix and then reconstructed in the late 18th century. The building embodies the architectural and technological history of the lighthouses
The 14th century frescoes in Padua, Italy have also become a World Heritage Site.
The frescoes, made between 1302 and 1397, were painted by different artists in different buildings, yet the frescoes have a unified style and content. Among the frescoes, for example, is the cycle of Giotto’s sculpture in the Scroveny Chapel, which marks the beginning of a revolutionary development in the history of fresco painting.
Mathildenhöhe art colony in Darmstadt, Germany and the Hema Cultural District in southwest Saudi Arabia, with its 7,000-year-old rock carvings, has become part of the World Heritage List.
cover photo: illustration
