UNESCO recognizes Danube Limes as a new World Heritage Site

UNESCO has designated the Danube Limes as part of the range of the ancient Roman Empire as a new World Heritage Site. The Responsible Committee of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, Culture and Communication (UNESCO) announced the decision at its 44th meeting in Fuzhou, China.

In its Bavarian section, the Danube Limes extend from Bad Gögging to Regensburg and Straubing to Passau in the district of Kelheim.

At the current UNESCO meeting, which will run until this Saturday (July 31), Germany has already received its fifth prize. Four applications have previously had success: Bad Ems, the spa towns of Baden-Baden and Bad Kissingen; Lower Germanic Limes; The Mathildenhohe Darmstadt; As well as Jewish sites in Speyer, Worms and Mainz. Only cultural and natural sites of outstanding universal value are designated as World Heritage.

Ahead of Friday’s decision, tensions had mounted after Hungary abandoned a joint application with Germany, Austria and Slovakia at short notice. The committee then deferred the decision that was actually planned for Monday and initially set up a working group for further deliberations.

6000 kms

Limes extend from Great Britain to Central and Eastern Europe and from the Middle East to North Africa. UNESCO is striving for a full international inscription of the 6000 km long “Borders of the Roman Empire”.

On Tuesday, the Lower Germanic Limes, already included in the World Heritage List, run for about 400 kilometers along the Rhine. The border section begins at Rhinebrohl in Rhineland-Palatinate and ends in the North Sea in the Netherlands. There is a distance of 220 km between Bonn and Clev in North Rhine-Westphalia.

“I am delighted that the World Heritage Committee has honored Danube Limes today,” said Maria Bohmer, president of the German UNESCO Commission: “For the Romans, the Danube was not just a natural frontier, it was also an important link for goods. .and above all for ideas,” says Bomer.

So the Danube Limes not only diverged, but also intertwined very different worlds with each other. “It is an excellent testament to Roman civilization, whose strength has always been to absorb external influences,” Bomer said.

The fortifications of Hadrian’s Wall and Antonine Wall in Great Britain (1987/2008) and Upper German-Rhetian Limes in Germany (2005) had already been awarded, the Roman Empire’s borders from Scotland to Slovakia recognized as World Heritage. was given.

Danube borders not yet met

With the newly registered components, however, the Danube Limes is still not complete, Michel Müntfering, Minister of State for International Cultural Policy at the Foreign Office, said: “It is now important to connect the sites in the eastern section of the Danube to the western sections of the Limes, Müntfering added: “Danube Limes not only respects a special landscape of monuments, but also recognizes a long-standing association with Austria and Slovakia.”

The World Heritage Committee that decided on the award is made up of 21 elected Contracting States to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. As a rule, it makes decisions annually on the inscription of new cultural and natural sites on the World Heritage List. Due to the pandemic, the conference was postponed last year. The World Heritage List has more than 1100 cultural and natural sites in 167 countries. Of them, 51 are considered threatened.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210730-99-618154/3