Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret

Le Havre, the City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: The city of Le Havre, on the English Channel in Normandy, was severely bombed during the Second World War. The destroyed area was rebuilt according to the plan of a team headed by Auguste Perret, from 1945 to 1964. The site forms the administrative, commercial and cultural center of Le …

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Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay

Mont-Saint-Michel and its Bay UNESCO World Heritage Site

From the World Heritage inscription: Perched on a rocky islet in the midst of vast sandbanks exposed to powerful tides between Normandy and Brittany stand the ‘Wonder of the West’, a Gothic-style Benedictine abbey dedicated to the archangel St Michael, and the village that grew up in the shadow of its great walls. Built between …

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Medieval Monuments in Kosovo

Medieval Monuments in Kosovo

From the World Heritage inscription: The four edifices of the site reflect the high points of the Byzantine-Romanesque ecclesiastical culture, with its distinct style of wall painting, which developed in the Balkans between the 13th and 17th centuries. The De?ani Monastery was built in the mid-14th century for the Serbian king Stefan De?anski and is …

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Durmitor National Park

Durmitor National Park UNESCO World Heritage Site,  Montenegro

From the Durmitor National Park World Heritage inscription: Durmitor is a stunning limestone massif located in Northern Montenegro and belonging to the Dinaric Alps or Dinarides. It is also the name of Montenegro’s largest protected area, the Durmitor National Park, which constitutes the heart of a landscape shaped by glaciers, numerous rivers and underground streams …

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The Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region

The Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region

From the World Heritage inscription: The Lake Ohrid region, a mixed World Heritage property covering 83,350 ha, was inscribed for its natural values in 1979 and for its cultural values a year later. Lake Ohrid is a superlative natural phenomenon, providing refuge for numerous endemic and relict freshwater species of flora and fauna dating from …

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Van Nellefabriek

Van Nellefabriek UNESCO World Heritage Site, Netherlands

From the World Heritage inscription: Designed and built in the 1920s, the Van Nellefabriek demonstrates an extremely accomplished industrial architecture. It comprises a complex of buildings consisting of several factories aligned along the perspective of a large internal roadway, and close to several means of transport (canals, roads, railway lines). Supported on an internal structure …

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Belfries of Belgium and France

Belfries of Belgium and France

From the World Heritage inscription for the Belfries of Belgium and France: High towers built in the heart of urban areas, often dominating the principal square, the belfries are essential elements in the organization and representation of the towns to which they belong. The site inscribed on the World Heritage List comprises 33 belfries located …

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Flemish Beguinages

Flemish Beguinages UNESCO World Heritage Site, Belgium

From the World Heritage inscription for the Flemish Beguinages: The Flemish béguinages are a series of 13 sites in the Flanders Region of Belgium. They bear extraordinary witness to the cultural tradition of the Beguines that developed in north-western Europe in the Middle Ages. These Beguines were either unmarried or widowed women who entered into …

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Stoclet House

Stoclet House UNESCO World Heritage Site, Brussels

From the World Heritage inscription for the Stoclet House: The Stoclet House is an outstanding testimony to the creative genius of the Wiener Werkstätte. It was designed and built in Brussels from 1905 to 1911 by one of the founders of the movement, the Austrian architect Josef Hoffmann, of whose work it is the masterpiece. …

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