From the World Heritage inscription: The Brimstone Hill Fortress is of historical, cultural and architectural significance, a monument to the ingenuity of the British military engineers who designed it and supervised its construction and to the skill, strength and endurance of the African slaves who built and maintained it. In some of its architectural features, …
From the World Heritage inscription: The culturo-historical region of Kotor has exerted considerable influence, over a span of time and within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture and human settlement. Kotor and its neighbors were main bridgeheads of Venice on the southern Adriatic coast. Its art, goldsmithing, and architecture schools had …
Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Bosnia and Herzegovina. I’m on a mission to visit every UNESCO site in the world (it will take a lifetime), so visiting Mehmed Paša Sokolovi? Bridge was a top priority when I began planning my Balkans road trip. My original plan was to …
One of the more iconic sites in all of Bosnia and Herzegovina—the old bridge in Mostar—is actually not that old. At least, the current incarnation of Stari Most is a lot newer than one might think, given the bridge’s long history. Originally built in 1557 under the administration of the Ottoman Empire, it was destroyed …
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 …
From the World Heritage inscription: Warsaw was deliberately annihilated in 1944 as a repression of the Polish resistance to the German occupation. The capital city was reduced to ruins with the intention of obliterating the centuries-old tradition of Polish statehood. The rebuilding of the historic city, 85% of which was destroyed, was the result of …
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 …
From the World Heritage inscription: Together with Sierra de las Minas Biosphere Reserve, Maya is the most important reserve in the country, because of its archaeological and bio/ecological interest. Rivers, lakes, swamps and flooding savannas are important for biodiversity and for migratory birds. The reserve contains the largest area of tropical rainforest in Guatemala and …
From the World Heritage inscription: The ruins of Quirigua retain an impressive series of stelae and sculpted calendars, partially deciphered, which constitute a remarkable and unique source of the history of the social, political and economic events of the Mayan civilization. The zoomorphic and anthropomorphic sculptures are among the most attractive pre-Columbian works known. Quirigua …