In images, in picturesAfter a one-year hiatus, Covid-19 obliges, the Unesco World Heritage Committee met from July 16 in Fuzhou (China) to inscribe new sites on the World Heritage list.
The candidacy files for the UNESCO World Heritage List were numerous this year, cumulating those of 2020 and 2021. The Committee, meeting online under the chairmanship, from Fuzhou, in China, of Tian Xuejun, vice-minister of Chinese Education and President of the Chinese National Commission for Unesco, examined the state of conservation of 255 sites already inscribed, before studying the new candidates who could join this list this year. A total of 1,121 sites were proposed during this session, spread across 167 countries.
Listed for their architectural interest, such as the French lighthouse at Cordouan, for their remarkable natural environment, like the Gulf of California, or their atypical industrial history, such as this grouping of eleven “large European water towns” or these Former mining areas in Wales and Romania, the sites present very varied profiles, with the only common point of requiring preservation measures.
The “matrimonial tower” and the “Russian chapel”, in the park of Mathildenhöhe, in Darmstadt (Germany). All the buildings in this Art Nouveau-style park have been classified on the Unesco World Heritage List. Manfred Mehlig / Sime / PhotononstopCordouan lighthouse, at the mouth of the Gironde, in Verdon-sur-Mer (Gironde). Built at the beginning of the 17th century, it is the last lighthouse to still welcome keepers all year round. THEOPHILE TROSSAT FOR “THE WORLD”The citadel of Milot, which dates from the 19th century, south of Cap-Haitien, Haiti. Matias Delacroix / APThe ruins of the oldest American solar observatory (between 500 and 200 BC), in Chankillo, near Casma (Peru). JANINE COSTA / AFPRetiro Park, in Madrid (Spain), listed with the neighboring boulevard of Paseo del Prado. JUAN MEDINA / ReutersThe landscapes created by slate mining in North West Wales (such as here the remains of the old Cwmorthin mine in the Gwynedd region), UK, are now on the Unesco World Heritage List. Mick Sharp / Loop Images / PhotononstopPetroglyphs from the archaeological site of Bir Hima, Saudi Arabia. Amar Grover / John Warburton-Lee / PhotononstopThe Gulf of California and its islands, in Mexico, made its entry this year into the UNESCO World Heritage List. GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFPThe church of Estacion Atlantida, in Canelones (Uruguay). PABLO PORCIUNCULA / AFPThe entrance to an old gold mine gallery in Rosia Montana, Romania. The hills around the village contain a Roman mining complex which began to be developed in the 2nd century and is now on the Unesco list. DANIEL MIHAILESCU / AFPMuiderslot Castle (Netherlands) is part of the larger set of “Dutch Defense Water Lines”, now listed as World Heritage. SEM VAN DER WAL / AFPRecognized as a “winter resort town of the Riviera” for its architectural, landscape and town planning heritage, Nice (Alpes-Maritime) is one of the new sites classified in 2021. CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFPThe source of Célestins, in Vichy, in Allier. The city is one of a group of eleven “water towns” belonging to seven countries, which have been classified as “large water towns in Europe”. Luc Olivier / PhotononstopThe home of Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. MAURO PIMENTEL / AFPNotre-Dame-de-l’Assomption Cathedral in Tlaxcala, Mexico, has been listed, along with the entire Franciscan monastery that surrounds it. ALFREDO ESTRELLA / AFPThe Japanese island of Iriomote, nicknamed the “Galapagos of the Far East” for its tropical primary forest, has been classified on the UNESCO World Heritage List “because of its natural attributes”. ITSUO INOUYE / AP
