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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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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The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik

The Cathedral of St James in Šibenik World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: The Cathedral of Šibenik is the fruitful outcome of considerable interchanges of influences between the three culturally different regions of northern Italy, Dalmatia and Tuscany in the 15th and 16th centuries. These interchanges created the conditions for unique and outstanding solutions to the technical and structural problems of constructing the …

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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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Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta

Ferrara, City of the Renaissance, and its Po Delta World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: Ferrara is an outstanding planned Renaissance city which has retained its urban fabric virtually intact. The developments in town planning expressed in Ferrara were to have a profound influence on the development of urban design throughout the succeeding centuries. The brilliant Este court attracted a constellation of artists, poets, and …

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18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex

18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex

From the World Heritage inscription for the 18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli, and the San Leucio Complex: The monumental complex at Caserta, while cast in the same mold as other 18th-century royal establishments, is exceptional for the broad sweep of its design, incorporating an imposing palace and park, …

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Villa d’Este, Tivoli

Villa d'Este, Tivoli UNESCO World Heritage Site, Italy

From the World Heritage inscription for the Villa d’Este, Tivoli: The gardens of the Villa d’Este had a profound influence on the development of garden design throughout Europe. They are among the earliest and finest of the giardini delle meraviglie and symbolize the flowering of Renaissance culture. On 9 September 1550, Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este …

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Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison

Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison UNESCO World Heritage Site, Barbados

From the Historic Bridgetown World Heritage inscription: As one of the earliest established towns with a fortified port in the Caribbean network of military and maritime-mercantile outposts of the British Atlantic, Historic Bridgetown and its Garrison was the focus of trade-based English expansion in the Americas. By the 17th century, the fortified port town was …

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Pitons Management Area

Pitons Management Area UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the Pitons Management Area World Heritage inscription: Dominating the mountainous landscape of St Lucia are the Pitons, two steep-sided volcanic spires rising side by side from the sea. Gros Piton (770 m) is 3 km in diameter at its base, and Petit Piton (743 m) is 1 km in diameter and linked to the …

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