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The article analyses the World Heritage Center activities in the implementation of the pilot project "Astronomy and World Heritage. Thematic Initiative", which was launched in 2003. As part of this project, in 2010, 2019 and in 2021 five objects, related to the astronomical heritage were added to the World Heritage List. However, a detailed study of the UNESCO World Heritage List shows, that it already contains astronomical heritage objects (usually historical observatories), which fit there as part of complex nominations, for example, centers of historical cities or groups of architectural structures, concentrated on historical and cultural territory. Examples of astronomical heritage sites included in the UNESCO World Heritage List are described.

This paper presents the acoustic study of a sample of sonic artefacts, in particular a selection of wind instruments (horns, trumpets and pipes), from the UNESCO World Heritage Centre of Teotihuacan, Mexico, based on a thorough examination of the accessible and playable archaeological finds and the construction and subsequent test of a series of experimental models. Combined with the archaeological and iconographical information, the study helps to deduce information with regard to the urban settings in which these instruments might have been used. It also reveals some basic acoustic components of the music once performed in Teotihuacan.

This article examines the process of text-based negotiations surrounding the documents of the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. It focuses on revisions to the Operational Guidelines of the Convention and utilizes ethnographic observation and textual examination to show how alternative, and often the most controversial, proposals are silenced through the practice of consensus. It expands anthropological perspectives on the inner workings of intergovernmental institutions and adds to the literature on heritage regimes by providing examples from United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) most prestigious intergovernmental committee. Ultimately, the article enhances our understanding of the political tensions and practical limitations of policymaking within intergovernmental organizations in the United Nations, including UNESCO.

The subject of this research is the decisions adopted at the 44th session of the World Heritage Committee on the conservation of the World Heritage Site “Lake Baikal” pertaining to such relevant questions as the construction of hydropower station on the Selenga River, as well as countering such phenomena as wild fires and illegal construction within the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Territory. The article provides characteristics to the content of documents approved at the recently held 44th session of the World Heritage Committee for the Conservation of the World Heritage Site “Lake Baikal”, within the framework of which the international community assess the actions of the Russian Federation on discharge of the obligations on conservation of the ecosystem of Lake Baikal. Analysis of the problems to be solved that are listed in documentation of the 44th session of committee, the author notes the potential of the world heritage protection mechanism in solution of the problem of constructing hydropower stations on the Selenga River. These include extension of the applicable scope of the “No-go” agreements to the sphere of financial and insurance services, consideration of positive experience of using such institution as the List of World Heritage in Danger, as well as interaction with the International Hydropower Association on elaboration of the universal approaches towards the problem of impact of hydropower stations upon the World Heritage Sites.

Tras la exposición de los objetivos y metodología, se realiza un comentario sobre la preservación del patrimonio en España, en particular de El Retiro, así como de la reciente presentación de la candidatura “Paseo del Prado y el Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias” a la lista del Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO. La evolución de El Retiro ha ido de la mano de su desarrollo como Real Sitio. La descripción de su patrimonio permite conocer detalles de su historia hasta la actualidad, que ha configurado un magnífico entorno de gran exotismo en el corazón de Madrid. El análisis de los recursos y de la actividad turística y cultural que soporta, junto con los resultados de una encuesta realizada a los visitantes, evidencian su gran aceptación por parte de residentes y turistas; también la existencia de problemas en la gestión e información dirigida al público, que respectivamente repercuten en el mantenimiento y aprovechamiento de este espacio singular. After outlining the objectives, methodology and making brief allusion to concepts and laws in relation to the preservation of heritage in Spain, and the recent presentation of the candidacy “Paseo del Prado y el Retiro. Landscape of the Arts and Sciences” to the UNESCO World Heritage list, the article goes on to give a brief historical description of the evolution of the Retiro Park, since its origins, as a highly exotic Royalty Site in the heart of Madrid. An analysis of the park’sresources and the tourist and cultural activity offered in El Retiro is given together with the results of a survey carried out among visitors, showing the great acceptance of the site by residents and tourists alike but also highlighting the existence of certain management and information problems iwhich respectively affect the maintenance and use of this unique space.

The islands in the Gotō region off Kyushu Island were refuges, mountains providing both terraces for growing potatoes and rice; and hideaways for clandestine religious practices; seas and bays providing fish and seaweed. Religious refugees arrived here in the 18th and 19th centuries, but had to contend with a harsh winter climate, the strong prejudices of indigenous inhabitants, and the long arms of the Nagasaki magistrate. This article locates a migrant people known variously as the senpuku, the kakure, kirishitan, or Hidden Christians (HC), and their descendants who acknowledge the natural world’s imprint on them: their characteristics and cultural heritage are shaped by the interstitial spaces of the islands in which they subside(d). World Heritage Cultural listings in 2018 included sites on the islands and were rightly acclaimed. Yet, here, as in other places, the World Heritage campaign was at times driven by shallow motivations reflecting exotic and unfounded prejudices and tourist-related economic aspirations. Even in the nomenclature, the World Heritage listing mentions the HC, but this group of people are not singular, and require more careful definition. This article seeks to demonstrate how by examining new sources of oral history, we stand to enrich our knowledge by a ‘deep’ engagement, taking account of both human and non-human processes, practices and awareness of place. Secondly, by focusing on this region we may re-orient our understanding of Japanese and East Asian History in a wider context than often understood, and inclusive of this coastal and marginal place. An analysis four of the sites of World Heritage ascribed by UNESCO on the Gotō Archipelago off Nagasaki Prefecture Japan alongside the historic documents and supported by oral history reveals a religious cultural hybridity integrated into a severe environment.

Em 22 de junho de 2013, era acrescentado mais um episódio à história secular da Universidade de Coimbra (UC): a inscrição do bem Universidade de Coimbra – Alta e Sofia na Lista do Património Mundial da UNESCO. O propósito deste artigo constitui-se em aprofundar alguns princípios que delinearam o processo da UC a Património Mundial, tendo em conta o contributo e influência de alguns dos seus protagonistas político-conceptuais, teóricos e decisores. Para tal, terá contribuído o pensamento e o trabalho desenvolvido por dois gabinetes, constituídos como Projetos Especiais da Reitoria, em março e em outubro de 2004, o Gabinete Paço das Escolas e o Gabinete de Candidatura à UNESCO, para desenvolver o processo de candidatura. Recorrendo, sobretudo a pesquisa e revisão documental e bibliográfica, este trabalho articula os testemunhos desses protagonistas, pelo papel fundamental que tiveram ao longo do processo, sob várias perspetivas.

In het sluitstuk van diverse bijdragen in dit nummer over authenticiteit wordt de vraag gesteld of authenticiteit als begrip geloofwaardig is. Dit gebeurt aan de hand van de betekenis die authenticiteit heeft voor monumenten op de UNESCO Werelderfgoedlijst. Monumenten met het predikaat werelderfgoed hebben volgens de Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention van UNESCO ‘Outstanding Universal Values’ (OUV). Tevens beantwoorden ze aan de eis van integriteit en authenticiteit, in ieder geval waar het cultureel erfgoed betreft. In navolging van The Nara Document on Authenticity (1994), en rekening houdend met de mondiale culturele diversiteit, kan de authenticiteit gebaseerd zijn op een grote variëteit aan eigenschappen. Twee Nederlandse werelderfgoedmonumenten, het Rietveld Schröderhuis (1924) en de Van Nellefabriek (1925-1931), behoren tot de architectuur van de Moderne Beweging. In de nominatiedossiers van deze twee monumenten wordt authenticiteit verschillend beargumenteerd. In beide gevallen is, zoals bij monumenten uit de Moderne Beweging zeer gangbaar is geworden, de ‘ontwerpauthenticiteit’ echter van groot belang. Is het begrip authenticiteit dan zodanig verbreed dat het uiteindelijk willekeurig wordt toegepast? Volgens de auteur kan authenticiteit zeker een kwaliteitskenmerk zijn, als er maar binnen de eigen culturele context een duidelijke en geloofwaardige definitie wordt gehanteerd.

Stale postępujący, nieodwracalny proces niszczenia materialnego dziedzictwa kulturowego skłania nas do zadania pytania, co można zrobić, aby zmniejszyć konsekwencje jego skutków.Katastrofy, takie jak niedawno zniszczona przez pożar katedra Notre-Dame, uświadamiają nam jak realne jest zagrożenie utratą.Artykuł wskazuje na rolę zaawansowanej technologicznie dokumentacji opartej na metodzie skanowania laserowego i możliwości tworzenia wizualizacji tj. modeli 3D uzyskanych z przetworzonej chmury punktów.Metoda laserowego skanowania 3D oferuje możliwość opracowania naukowych danych nie tylko dla społeczności naukowej, ale również tworzenia aplikacji, służących szerokiemu upowszechnianiu wiedzy o zabytkach. Wizualizacje uzyskane z chmury punktów można udostępniać odbiorcom na całym świecie za pomocą platform internetowych.Zabytkiem wybranym do przeprowadzenia modelowego skanowania laserowego był średniowieczny, drewniany kościół pw. Wniebowzięcia NMP i św. Michała Archanioła w Haczowie. Świątynia znajduje się na Liście Światowego Dziedzictwa UNESCO, co potwierdza uznanie jej wartości w skali globalnej.

The ancient ksar of Chinguetti was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. It is located in West Africa, on one of the most important caravan trading routes, in use from the eighth century until the beginning of the twentieth century. The trans-Sahara traffic – mainly based on products such as salt, gold and ivory – also fostered cultural development along the route. As commercial, cultural and religious contacts were established over the centuries, manuscripts were constantly being written, copied, carried, bought and sold. Following a failed attempt to build a museum to house Chinguetti’s most important manuscripts in 2000, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) decided to restore every traditional library within the ksar, the actual places where the ancient manuscripts have been kept for generations. Terrachidia NGO has spearheaded the Libraries Preservation Project, using traditional building techniques and local materials and labour to carry out these restorations.

Since the early twentieth century, and particularly since the establishment of the UNESCO World Heritage system, the vocabulary of heritage has expanded tremendously. Today a scientific language of conservation reaches into every corner of the world. Yet, it would be misleading to assume that this heritage idiom is absorbed everywhere in the same way, without local modifications. Focusing on the Malaysian national heritage project, this article explores the interaction between transnational and local terminologies. It first traces the official translation and vernacularization processes involved in the formulation of heritage conservation laws. Beyond the officially sanctioned vocabulary, however, there is a much more variegated heritage word stock that reflects multicultural Malaysian society. This article therefore examines the patrimonial vocabulary as encountered on the ground and alternative discourses to the national heritage project. The ways in which heritage is labelled and described in different contexts shed light on the varied worlds encompassed by the concept of heritage: from the conventional division between tangible and intangible heritage to intimate conceptualisations of familial, ancestral, and communal heritage as well as divergent ways of engaging with colonial legacies. Depuis le début du xxe siècle, et plus précisément depuis l’établissement du système du patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO, le vocabulaire du patrimoine s’est largement répandu. Aujourd’hui, le langage scientifique de la conservation atteint tous les recoins de la planète. Pourtant, il serait fallacieux de supposer que ce jargon du patrimoine est reçu partout de la même façon, sans modifications locales. En examinant le projet pour un patrimoine national malaisien, cet article explore l’interaction entre les terminologies locales et transnationales. Dans un premier temps il retrace les processus de traduction officielle et de vernacularisation à l’œuvre dans la formulation des lois sur la préservation du patrimoine. Il examine comment, au-delà du vocabulaire établi officiellement, il existe un réservoir bien plus large et varié de mots qui rendent compte du multiculturalisme de la société malaisienne. Dans un second temps, l’article aborde le vocabulaire du patrimoine tel que nous l’avons rencontré sur le terrain, ainsi que les discours apparaissant comme autant d’alternatives au projet pour un patrimoine national. Les façons dont le patrimoine est nommé et décrit dans des contextes différents mettent au jour la variété des mondes englobés dans le concept de patrimoine : parmi ceux-ci, la division conventionnelle entre patrimoine tangible et intangible, les conceptualisations intimes du patrimoine familial, ancestral et communautaire, ainsi que les relations divergentes établies avec l’héritage colonial.

Research on tourism to Machu Picchu rarely addresses the ways in which transportation, particularly rail travel, is integral to a visit to the UNESCO world heritage site. Yet the majority of visitors to Machu Picchu arrive by train, making rail travel a crucial component to the way in which the site is understood and experienced. This article examines rail travel to Machu Picchu through archival research and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cuzco and at Machu Picchu to argue that rail travel capitalizes on historic and cultural imaginings of Machu Picchu as a lost city, transforming the tourist into an explorer in the process. The experience relies on vision and affect as the train acts a temporalizing machine, taking the tourist back in time to visit another world, perpetuating the myth of lost cities, discovery and dispossession in the process.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia is one of the most significant archaeological sites in the world inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is also consistently rated as the top Global Landmark by travelers in TripAdvisor. This study employed big data analytics to examine visitor experience via sentiment and topic analysis, given the popularity and volume of visitors annually. The process involved an examination of 32,394 online reviews about Angkor Wat posted between January 2015 and October 2019 on Tripadvisor's website. The analysis was conducted for reviews with one, two, and three-star ratings, and those with four and five star ratings separately. Results showed highly skewed positive ratings, while similar positive sentiments dominated the reviews. Topic analysis disclosed that sunset and sunrise experience, attraction structure, guided tours, and temple experience were topics attributed mostly to positive sentiments. Conversely, crowding, persistent selling, clothing style, and expenses were illustrated as negative topics. Such insights are useful for managers at Angkor Wat to develop various marketing and management interventions to effectively manage the site and to optimize visitor experiences.

Drawing from multisite ethnographic research conducted at four Canadian UNESCO World Heritage natural sites, this writing focuses on the geosocialities of fossils and argues that fossils are alive: vitalist matter capable of affecting and being affected by the geosocial meshworks in which they are entangled. In the present writing, these relations are explored through more-than-representational ethnographic fragments intended to enliven the geophilia of fossils by underscoring the way they are animated through affect, memory, performance, narrative, possibility, and imagination.

Tajima Yahei Sericulture Farm, one of the four components of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Tomioka Silk Mill and Related Sites inscribed in 2014, was the starting point for advancements in sericulture farmhouses, emphasizing the importance of ventilation. Through Yahei’s experimentation surrounding the ideal space to breed silkworms, a new sericulture theory was invented, and a sericulture farmhouse architecture was formed. For the purpose of preserving this cultural heritage for future generations, it is important to understand the idea that led to the cultural and industrial advancement of the village of Shimamura and to revise the preservation plans prepared by stakeholders. This paper will discuss the development of the sericulture theory, seiryō-iku theory, and the formation of a sericulture farmhouse architecture; describe the adaptation of former sericulture farmhouses and the surrounding landscapes in terms of the industry and environment; outline the plans and efforts for the preservation and revitalization of Tajima Yahei Sericulture Farm, its surrounding area and its underlying issues; and propose a direction for future preservation plans.

Maps and GIS used for the nomination and subsequent management of UNESCO World Heritage sites have primarily served bureaucratic resource management purposes. However, bureaucratic maps offer an opportunity to represent associative cultural landscapes, intangible cultural elements, and the geographies of Indigenous peoples. Indigenous toponyms can be found on many World Heritage maps for sites located within settler societies such as New Zealand, Australia, the United States, and Canada. Currently, bureaucratic heritage maps do not emphasize or even have a method for presenting the meaning and significance of Indigenous toponyms. Instead, the names are represented as static, inanimate objects void of meaning. This article presents archival evidence that bureaucratic state maps found within some UNESCO World Heritage nomination dossiers and resource management plans contain Indigenous cartographic elements that Indigenous communities could use as the basis for creating Indigital story maps.

Among thousands of UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the world, three groups belong to the Republic of Armenia; Cathedral and Churches of Echmiatsin and the Archaeological Site of Zvartnots (2000), Monasteries of Haghpat and Sanahin (1996, 2000), and Monastery of Geghard and the Upper Azat Valley (2000). All of them are distinctive representatives of Armenian Apostolic Church. Their uniqueness lies in their historical origin (dating back to the 4th century), singular architectural style and their ability to provide spiritual support to Armenians from ancient times. Almost all of them are still used for their original (religious) purpose. Nevertheless, in some cases poor public visitation is observed. Being the first example of this kind of research in Armenia, the objective of this study is to analyse and make a diagnosis of the current condition of the sites regarding the public visitation and tourism uses, as well as to propose heritage enhancement tools to improve the physical and intellectual access to them. The methodology includes the combination of observational fieldwork, revision of scientific bibliography, as well as preparation of a complete heritage inventory of these sites. Assessments are performed both from the tourism point of view and for the intrinsic values of these monuments, following technical criteria. The results of this study attest to the tourism potential of those churches. Particularly, the Monastery of Geghard and the Cathedral of Echmiatsin are unique and of significant importance due to their accessibility, good conservation conditions and attractiveness.

Since Decision 29 COM 7B.a of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in 2005, the World Heritage Centre and the Advisory Bodies have been tackling the threats posed by climate change to cultural and n...

This article, based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Luang Prabang, Laos, since 2006, expands the analysis of the conflicts and divergent interpretations regarding non-Western UNESC...

While political ecology has long documented struggles over conservation spaces, little attention has been paid to the temporal aspects of these struggles. Conservation areas are often described as timeless, and the protection of timeless nature has been used as an argument to legitimize the dispossession of land from rural populations. Timelessness, however, is not just imposed on landscapes. It is the end result of complex mediations of contradictory temporalities that each establish different relationships between the future, the past, and the present. Drawing on the author’s material on the struggle over the Dukuduku Forest, bordering South Africa’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site, this article examines the temporal aspects of that struggle. An examination of the contestation surrounding the park alerts us to the importance of time and temporal processes in political ecology analyses. Specifically, the case shows that the future has repercussions on the present through anticipation, and that political struggles, over which realities are allowed to emerge, are deeply entangled, temporal processes fraught with contradictions. This article therefore constitutes a call for paying closer attention to temporal processes in political ecology analyses.

Distribution and recognition injustices are often inextricably linked throughout history. Economic exploitation of a minority group by a dominant group may even transition into cultural domination ...

Among the instruments elaborated for protecting and promoting cultural heritage, the UNESCO World Heritage Convention (WHC) and related policies remain dominant, despite criticism in academia. Stud...

This article examines the construction of authenticity through vernacular architecture at the World Heritage Site of Luang Prabang, Laos. Our findings suggest that the rhetoric of authenticity is p...

The rapid pace of urbanisation and development and its impacts on the material fabric of Asia’s largest cities has brought about a growing recognition of the need to conserve the tangible and intan...

In A Future in Ruins: UNESCO, World Heritage, and the Dream of Peace, Lynn Meskell illuminates the twisted path that World Heritage has taken from an idealist, globalist hope to build peace through...

Defense structures consist of highly complex and timely construction techniques. When the civilizations that dominated their lands had changed, castles were repaired and used. Fast construction techniques with low cost have been preferred, usually without special designs or decorations. These cultural properties, which have lost their original function as of the last century, are the most decisive elements of their cities. The defensive structures in the user's urban memory are very decisive because they have never witnessed the city without this defensive structure. Therefore, interventions to these structures should be on the smallest scale. Amasra Fortress covers a part of the district center. Some parts of the castle have been completely destroyed. Detailed researches have been made on the surviving parts. The periods during which the castle was built were investigated. The Amasra Fortress, which has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Temporary List since 2013, has been compared with the entire Genoese colonial Black Sea coastal castles. The aim of this study is to elucidate how to preserve this cultural heritage where academic studies are scarce. Therefore, the historical background of the Amasra Fortress is briefly mentioned. The current situation of the castle was then documented. The damages observed and documented on the castle were revealed. How to deal with these damages is determined. Finally, short, medium and long term protection recommendations have been developed. The most important criterion is the implementation of conservation proposals. Therefore, interviews, observations and comparisons with other walled settlements in the area are based on. In the light of academic studies, it is aimed to transfer this cultural property to the future by protecting it correctly.

The Monuments of History is a collection of over 100 most valuable monuments in Poland. At the same time, the Monuments of History are one of the 5 forms of protection of monuments, specified in Polish legislation. These circumstances make it necessary to assess the functioning of this form of the monuments protection. Many elements in the concept of the Monuments of History, the procedure of their nomination and the substantive assessment are taken over from the UNESCO World Heritage System. Therefore, this system may be a point of reference for the evaluation of the functioning of the Monuments of History. At the same time, on the basis of this comparison, it is possible to indicate directions for improving the functioning of the Monuments of History. The paper discusses fundamental aspects of the functioning of the Monuments of History – including the place and role of the Monuments of History in the Polish system of the monuments protection, the procedure of nomination, the procedure of evaluation, the relationship of the Monuments of History with the assets of the UNESCO World Heritage.

Between 1993 and 2018, Japan successfully applied to have 18 cultural sites and four natural sites inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List of places deemed to be of ‘outstanding universal value...

Saudi Arabia has five UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) and plans to submit additional sites for inscription in the future. With the current level of tourist visitation to the country and potential...

The growing complexity of contemporary local public governance is a clear challenge to the success of public policies. The policy domains of culture, broadly, and heritage preservation, specificall...

This article investigates the complex relations between heritage and memory through an analysis of the UNESCO World Heritage ‘Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution’ and its component...

Between the 1960s and 1980s, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched a number of international salvage campaigns at the behest of its member states, the most notable being the Nubian Monuments Campaign. Saving ancient monuments and discovering archaeological sites in Egypt and Sudan was viewed as a landmark in twentieth-century heritage conservation and international co-operation; it was never to be repeated again. Requests for assistance continued, yet the campaigns were configured as conservation missions rather than integrated field projects. In retrospect, this action delimited UNESCO’s goals to bridge education, science, and culture and, ultimately, impacted the potential of cross-cultural dialogue and partnerships afforded by archaeological field research. This article focuses on UNESCO’s International Campaign for the Safeguarding of Moenjodaro (1974–97) and traces the role of experts, both archaeological and hydrological, within UNESCO’s mission. It uncovers the organization’s handling of the monumental challenges and long-term effects of a multimillion-dollar salvage effort. In doing so, the article reveals the early role of prominent archaeologists Mortimer Wheeler and John Otis Brew, the ideological shift at UNESCO from archaeological research to monumentality and preservation, and the tensions that emerged as world heritage was reimagined.

Signs in Upper Palaeolithic art provide an important criterion of assessing cultural affinities or differences. The Swabian Jura in southern Germany and Grotte Chauvet in the Ardeche region in southern France – both inscribed in the list of the UNESCO world heritage - supply the most important examples of Aurignacian art known so far. Of a particular interest in this respect are characteristic types of signs which can be associated with depictions of animals. This paper examines the distinctive ways in which this association is realized in these two regions, including the question which type of signs was employed. Despite of the small data base and the lack of sophisticated statistical tests, this study may help to provide first hints to the question if the Aurignacian groups of the Ardeche and the Swabian Jura, whose areas are linked by important river systems, used similar or different sets of signs and in which animal contexts these signs were used. These results may give indications to what extent these groups were part of the same or different cultural entities and subsequently shared feelings of a common ethnicity and belief-world or not.

The Antequera dolmens site (Malaga, Spain), included in the UNESCO World Heritage List since July 2016, has a research history of almost 200 years that goes back to the work of Rafael Mitjana y Ardison in 1840s. After the discovery of the dolmen of Viera and the tholos of El Romeral, in 1903 and 1904 respectively, the research of the great megalithic site received a renewed impulse, both nationally and internationally. Published in 1943, the first volume of the great corpus of Iberian megalithic monuments by Georg and Vera Leisner ( Die Megalithgraber der Iberischen Halbinsel, Erster Teil: Der Suden ) was to become the most detailed and detailed study of the Antequera site during the second half of the 20th century, despite the fact that because it was published in German limited its penetration among Spanish scholarship. In this article we review the importance of the work of the Leisners to understand the characteristics of the Antequera megaliths in light of the results of the research that has been undertaken in the last 15 years. Many of the issues raised by the German couple continue to be fully pertinent within the context of today’s research on these monuments. In addition, to facilitate future access to their work, this paper is accompanied by full translations into English and Spanish of the Leisners’s work on the Antequera megaliths.

Located in the north-western part of Kyushu, “Hidden Christians Sites in the Nagasaki Region” were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2018. This serial property consists of twelve sites, including the Christian villages that bear unique testimony to a cultural tradition nurtured under a long period of religious prohibition. Based on fieldwork research at Kirishitan villages in Hirado City, this paper shows how the global conservation strategies affect the local people and the sustainability of their cultural tradition. Comparing UNESCO and Japanese cultural landscape protection policies, I argue that the evaluation and selection of sites that begin at the local authorities and stakeholders’ level, is eventually reduced to tangible properties ready-made for tourist consumption. Here, the evaluation subsides under the UNESCO authenticity criteria and narrow governmental interests towards the cultural tradition it is supposed to protect. Therefore, for the protection of cultural landscapes and the living traditions, the decisions by cultural heritage protection authorities should be carefully made, based on scientific research of a cultural tradition, and in the interest of the tradition’s living successors.

This chapter aims at presenting some aspects of the concept of the archaeological preservation of the remains of material culture and the role of the archaeologists during site management planning at the archaeological Jesuit-Guarani Missions, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Brazil. Located in the southern part of the South American continent (in the state of Rio Grande do Sul), the Missions were excavated for the first time and conserved from the beginning of the 1980s. Since then, many conservation projects have been carried out at the site in an effort to obtain a more accurate method to site management planning. In this chapter, we present the recent results of site management planning at the Jesuit-Guarani Missions World Heritage site and its implications to heritage legislation in Brazil.

In this chapter I address the concern that UNESCO World Heritage designation leads to unregulated tourism. I argue that heritage tourism not only has a negative impact on the site but may adversely impact local populations and descendant communities. I detail two related worries, UNESCO-cide and the Disneyfication of cultural heritage. The term ‘UNESCO-cide’ was coined by Marco d’Eramo to describe the role overtourism has played in the death of cities listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. Disneyfication is the process of sanitizing potentially controversial or seemingly negative narratives from the tourist site to make the experience more palatable. I focus my analysis on two UNESCO World Heritage sites: Angkor Archaeological Complex in Cambodia and George Town in Malaysia. After a discussion about the negative impacts World Heritage designation has had on these sites, I suggest some mitigating strategies for tourism.

Review of this book published in 2018 with the aim of publicizing the attributes of Risco Caido and the Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria, and promote the candidacy of the Cultural Landscape in the UNESCO World Heritage List, whose inscription was successful in 2019.

Este artigo é uma síntese da investigação desenvolvida no âmbito do doutoramento em Antropologia Social e Cultural, realizado entre 2013 e 2017, na Universidade de Coimbra, tendo como objeto de estudo os Caminhos Portugueses a Santiago de Compostela, a segunda maior rota praticada de peregrinação jacobeia. O Caminho Português a Santiago de Compostela é uma rota crescente que atrai dezenas de milhares de peregrinos todos os anos e que está em vias de reconhecimento como Património Nacional Português e Património da Humanidade pela UNESCO. Neste sentido, o objetivo neste artigo é delinear uma visão holística da (re)construção da cultura e património nessa dinâmica de patrimonialização dos Caminhos Portugueses a Santiago de Compostela, num registro sincrónico da perceção, relação e ação para com este património pelas comunidades onde ele está inserido, as ações das organizações envolvidas e também as motivações, visões e interpretações das pessoas que realizam esta rota de peregrinação. Assim, apresenta-se um registo de todo o trajeto de peregrinação, locais frequentados e demais atividades comummente realizadas pelas pessoas que realizam a rota Medieval do Caminho Português de Santiago. This article is a synthesis of the research carried out in the PhD degree in Social and Cultural Anthropology, between 2013 and 2017, at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, with the Portuguese ways to Santiago de Compostela, the second largest route of Jacobean pilgrimage, as object of study. That is a growing route that attracts tens of thousands of pilgrims every year, and which is in the process of being recognized as a Portuguese National Heritage and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In this sense, we seek to outline a holistic view of the (re)construction of culture and heritage in this dynamic of patrimonialization of the Portuguese Ways to Santiago de Compostela, in a synchronic register of the perception, relation and action towards this patrimony by the communities where it is inserted, the actions of the organizations involved and also the motivations, visions and interpretation of the people who perform this route of pilgrimage. Thus, we present a record of the entire pilgrimage route, places frequented and other activities commonly performed by the people who make the Medieval route of the Portuguese Ways to Santiago de Compostela.

Pino Pizzigoni was an architect from Bergamo whose work was characterized by a constant search for integration between tradition and innovation. The ‘stone houses’ built in the second post-war period in the Upper Town at the foot of the Medieval fortress and close to the Venetian Walls – a UNESCO World Heritage Site from 2017 – are an example of modern popular housing conceived to adapt to the needs of rural families who moved to the town. Designed under the Fanfani Law, they were envisaged to give new lifeblood to the ancient fabric, while respecting the landscape and the city’s skyline. Today, they can be considered one of the most significant post-war contributions to the cultural and architectural debate of the entire region. Their particular geographical position of the settlement has protected the complex because falling in an urban section marked by environmental constraints. However, to date, the asset has not yet been subjected to any protective restriction by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and so despite fifty years have passed since the architect’s death and over seventy years since the construction. The large underground car parking, today under construction on the border of the building complex, in addition to compromising its structural stability, would cause dramatic changes on the landscape, transforming a place that resembled a mountain village in an area congested by traffic and deafened by the noise of cars and tourists.

The objective of this chapter is to highlight the paradox of labeling in the tourism field, and this, in the perspective of sustainable tourism. Indeed, if the label helps to save tourist sites by a lack of notoriety and therefore attendance, it causes inconvenience related to overtourism. This is particularly the case of the “World Heritage of UNESCO” label. In fact, by definition the tourist sites benefiting from this label are fragile or even threatened, but the labeling can generate an over-satisfaction damaging to the sustainability of the site in question. Obtaining the label for this tourist destination has allowed to revive an ancestral heritage born in tenth century, but at the same time engendered nuisances related to over-frequentation by tourists and pilgrims to the point of running the risk of a denaturation of the spirit of this pilgrimage.

The 2015 Gorkha Earthquake was a humanitarian disaster but also a cultural catastrophe that damaged and destroyed historic monuments across Nepal, including those within the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage Property. In the rush to rebuild, traditionally constructed foundations are being removed and replaced with modern materials without assessments of whether these contributed to the collapse of a monument. Generally undertaken without scientific recording, these interventions have led to the irreversible destruction of earlier subsurface phases of cultural activity and the potential loss of evidence for successful traditional seismic adaptations and risk reduction strategies, with no research into whether modern materials, such as concrete and steel, would offer enhanced resilience. In response to this context, multidisciplinary post-disaster investigations were undertaken between 2015 and 2018, including archaeological excavation, geophysical survey, geoarchaeological analysis, linked to architectural and engineering studies, to begin to evaluate and assess the damage to, and seismic adaptations of, historic structures within Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley. Where possible, we draw on archaeoseismological approaches for the identification and classification of Earthquake Archaeological Effects (EAEs) at selected monuments damaged by the 2015 Gorkha Earthquake. Lessons learned from evidence of potential weaknesses, as well as historic ‘risk-sensitive tactics’ of hazard reduction within monuments, are now being incorporated into reconstruction and rehabilitation initiatives alongside the development of methods for the protection of heritage in the face of future earthquakes.

In this article we present the results of a geomorphological and geophysical investigation carried out in the Regional Park of Matera Murgia, also known as Park of the Rupestrian Churches (world site protected by UNESCO), in Basilicata region, southern Italy. The aim of this investigation is to support the scheduled restoration works in some rupestrian historical sites and the safety of the tourist route that connects the churches along the eastern side of Gravina river valley. In particular, a ground penetrating radar (GPR) prospection was conducted on frescoed surfaces in two rupestrian churches permitting the detection of different kinds of problems affecting the fresco surfaces, such as lesions and efflorescence.