From the World Heritage inscription: The 18th century Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth is a masterwork of Baroque theatre architecture, commissioned by Margravine Wilhelmine of Brandenburg as a venue for opera seria over which the princely couple ceremonially presided. The bell-shaped auditorium of tiered loges built of wood and lined with decoratively painted canvas was …
From the World Heritage inscription: The history of Regensburg is complex ranging from the Roman Empire to the modern times. The following are the main periods: • Antiquity: from AD 179, the site became a strong military base (Castra Regina), built in stone. It developed into a considerable trading post with workshops and also had …
From the World Heritage inscription: The sanctuary of Wies, a pilgrimage church miraculously preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and a masterpiece of creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared. The hamlet of Wies, near Steingaden in Bavaria, …
From the World Heritage inscription: The series of 111 out of the 937 known archaeological pile-dwelling sites in six countries around the Alpine and sub-alpine regions of Europe is composed of the remains of prehistoric settlements dating from 5,000 to 500 BC which are situated under water, on lake shores, along rivers or in wetlands. …
From the World Heritage inscription: The remains of the Reichenau foundation bear outstanding witness to the religious and cultural role of a great Benedictine monastery in the early Middle Ages. The Monastery of Reichenau was a highly significant artistic center of great significance to the history of art in Europe in the 10th and 11th …
From the World Heritage inscription: The Cistercian Maulbronn Monastery is considered the most complete and best-preserved medieval monastic complex north of the Alps. The monastery’s church, mainly in Transitional Gothic style, had a major influence on the spread of Gothic architecture over much of northern and central Europe. The water-management system at Maulbronn, with its …
From the World Heritage inscription: Speyer Cathedral exerted a considerable influence not only on the development of Romanesque architecture in the 11th and 12th centuries, but also on the evolution of the principles of restoration in Germany, in Europe, and in the world from the 18th century to the present. The cathedral, along with those …
From the World Heritage inscription: The religious complex represented by the former Lorsch Abbey with its 1,200-year-old gatehouse, which is unique and in excellent condition, comprises a rare architectural document of the Carolingian era with impressively preserved sculpture and painting of that period. It gives architectural evidence of the awakening of the West to the …
From the World Heritage inscription: The Messel Pit has provided a wealth of fossils that have greatly increased understanding of the Eocene Age. It is a small site approximately 1,000 m long (north to south) and 700 m wide (east to west). The Eocene (‘dawn of new times’) epoch (57-36 million years ago) was a …