From the World Heritage inscription: Wismar and Stralsund, leading centres of the Wendish section of the Hanseatic League from the 13th to the 15th centuries and major administrative and defence centres in the Swedish kingdom in the 17th and 18th centuries, contributed to the development and diffusion of brick construction techniques and building types, characteristic …
From the World Heritage inscription: The Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and the Ancient Beech Forests of Germany are a serial property comprising fifteen components. They represent an outstanding example of undisturbed, complex temperate forests and exhibit the most complete and comprehensive ecological patterns and processes of pure stands of European beech across a …
For months I had been planning my summer trip to Kodiak, Alaska and I was excited. I told everyone I ran into that I was headed there, and without exception, they questioned me on my choice of destinations. I was somewhat at a loss – there was no particular reason I could point to. Somewhere …
Starting Monday, March 11 I will spend 2-weeks driving around Germany with the goal of exploring 28 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany, 27 of which I have not previously visited.* I am excited to be doing this trip for several reasons. I love road trips because there is a freedom you have when driving …
From the World Heritage inscription: Kalwaria Zebrzydowska is an exceptional cultural monument in which the natural landscape was used as the setting for a symbolic representation in the form of chapels and avenues of the events of the Passion of Christ. The result is a cultural landscape of great beauty and spiritual quality in which …
From the World Heritage inscription: The wooden churches of southern Little Poland bear exceptional testimony to the tradition of church building from the Middle Ages. They have also been preserved in the context of the vernacular village and landscape setting and related to the liturgical and cult functions of the Roman Catholic Church in a …
From the World Heritage inscription: The salt mines of Cracow exemplify a large industrial establishment, administratively and technically well organized, the continued existence of which has been ensured by the process of adaptation since the Middle Ages. The progressive development of mining processes over the centuries is perfectly illustrated there, in all its stages, owing …
From the World Heritage inscription: Auschwitz-Birkenau was the principal and most notorious of the six concentration and extermination camps established by Nazi Germany to implement its Final Solution policy which had as its aim the mass murder of the Jewish people in Europe. Built in Poland under Nazi German occupation initially as a concentration camp …
Krakow is one of the most beautiful cities in Poland. You can really tell the difference between Krakow and Warsaw when you see both cities close up. The newness of the Warsaw old city is much more evident once you compare it to Krakow’s gorgeous and historic old town. As with the old parts of …