Plitvice Lakes National Park

UNESCO World Heritage Site #231: Plitvice Lakes National Park

From the World Heritage inscription: Plitvice Lakes National Park contains a series of beautiful lakes, caves, and waterfalls. These have been formed by processes typical of karst landscapes such as the deposition of travertine barriers, creating natural dams. These geological processes continue today. The Plitvice Lakes basin is a geomorphologic formation of biological origin, a …

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OnTravel Interview – Germany

While I was in Germany I did my regular call in with Paul Lasley and Elizabeth Harryman to update them on my 2-week road trip around the country. As usual, the discussion drifted into many different travel related subjects.

Muskauer Park / Park Muzakowski

Muskauer Park / Park Muzakowski UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: Muskauer Park was the forerunner for new approaches to landscape design in cities, and influenced the development of landscape architecture as a discipline. The site is the core zone of an extensive landscape park laid out by a leading European personality of the mid-19th century, Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau, around …

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Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz

Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is an outstanding example of the application of the philosophical principles of the Age of the Enlightenment to the design of a landscape that integrates art, education, and economy in a harmonious whole. The first essays in landscape design began with the foundation of Oranienbaum, …

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Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg

Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: The importance of Quedlinburg rests on three main elements: the preservation of the medieval street pattern; the wealth of urban vernacular buildings, especially timber-framed houses of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the important Romanesque collegiate church of St Servatius. The original urban layout is remarkably well preserved: it is …

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Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System

Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System

From the World Heritage inscription: Rammelsberg-Goslar is the largest and longest-lived mining and metallurgical complex in the central European metal-producing region whose role was paramount in the economy of Europe for many centuries. It is a very characteristic form of an urban-industrial ensemble which has its most complete and best-preserved expression in Europe at Rammelsberg-Goslar. …

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Fagus Factory in Alfeld

Fagus Factory in Alfeld UNESCO World Heritage Site

The Fagus Factory in Alfeld—located in Northern Germany near Hildesheim—is one of the most unique world heritage sites I’ve ever visited. Despite the fact that it’s an actual working factory held in private hands, I wouldn’t really classify it as an industrial site, but rather an as architectural site. I’ve read several reviews of the …

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St Mary’s Cathedral and St Michael’s Church at Hildesheim

St Mary’s Cathedral and St Michael’s Church at Hildesheim

From the World Heritage inscription: St Michael’s Church has exerted great influence on developments in architecture. The complex bears exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared. These two edifices and their artistic treasures give a better overall and more immediate understanding than any other decoration in Romanesque churches in the Christian West. The ancient …

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