Bavarian fairy tale castles and French Carnac Megaliths among new UNESCO World Heritage sites

UNESCO has added several new sites to the World Heritage list after reviewing applications that required extensive research and presentation processes.

Among them were several European sites, including the famous fairytale castles of Bavaria's King Ludwig II, the megalithic Carnac stones in northwestern France and the Minoan Palatial centres on the Greek island of Crete.

Fairy tale castles

At its meeting in Paris, the World Heritage Commission decided to elevate the German Neuschwanstein Castle, Herrenchiemsee, Linderhof and the royal house at Schachen to World Heritage status.

The magnificent castles in Upper Bavaria have been attracting numerous tourists for over 140 years. The buildings of King Ludwig II (1845-1886) attracted over 1.7 million visitors last year alone - including many international guests, particularly from the USA and Asian countries.

"The inclusion of the palaces on the World Heritage List is an outstanding honour for these impressive places," said the President of the German UNESCO Commission, Maria Böhmer. "They are all architectural masterpieces and bear witness to the artistic imagination, but also the eccentricity of the fairytale king."

Germany previously had 54 UNESCO World Heritage Sites - including the old towns of Stralsund and Wismar, Cologne Cathedral, the Wadden Sea and the Roman border fortifications of the Limes.

Ancient structures

The French Carnac megaliths and the Greek Minoan Palatial centres are both structures from antiquity.

The Carnac Stones are a dense collection of megalithic sites near the South coast of Bretagne, dating from from 4500–3300 BC.

The Minoan Palatial centres, including Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, Zakros, Zominthos and Kydonia, were key hubs of the Bronze Age Minoan civilisation, which flourished between 2800 and 1100 BCE.

The World Heritage inscription recognises the sites’ historical significance, architectural integrity and the existence of a comprehensive protection and management framework.

Cultural prestige

Although the World Heritage title does not bring any financial support, it does ensure further international attention and cultural prestige.

World Heritage status is also accompanied by UNESCO requirements that are intended to benefit the local population in particular, who are burdened by the influx of tourists. Among other things, the organisation requires a concept for effective visitor management in order to better control mass tourism.

The consequences of disregarding UNESCO guidelines were demonstrated in 2009 in Dresden's Elbe Valley, where a new bridge led to the withdrawal of World Heritage status. The construction of the so-called Waldschlösschenbrücke bridge was considered to be detrimental to the "outstanding universal value" of the cultural landscape. It was the first time that UNESCO had removed a European World Heritage site from the list.

Italy has 60 listed sites, the most of any country. Some notable examples include the historic centres of Rome, Florence, and Naples, the archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, and the Amalfi Coast.

Other sites that were added to the World Heritage list this week include three locations used by Cambodia’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime as torture and execution sites 50 years ago.

The inscription coincided with the 50th anniversary of the rise to power by the communist Khmer Rouge government, which caused the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians through starvation, torture and mass executions during a four-year reign from 1975 to 1979.

UNESCO’s World Heritage List lists sites considered important to humanity and includes the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Taj Mahal in India and Cambodia's Angkor archaeological complex.