World Heritage in the region
On 16 November 1972, the General Conference of UNESCO adopted the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. This convention has since been ratified by 190 countries committed to protecting the values for which their properties have been listed. They submit to UNESCO periodic evaluation reports on the state of conservation of these properties.
France co51 properties inscribed on the World Heritage List, 47 cultural, 1 mixed, 7 natural.
In occitanie region there are 8 cultural goods, 1 mixed, 1 natural.
- the "Canal du Midi', inscribed on the 1996 list, as monuments and ensembles.
Cultural property that extends within the Occitania region, registered under criteria i, ii, iv and vi.
World Heritage Correspondent : N. Dreal Occitanie.
- the "Lost mountain', listed in 1997 and extended in 1999 as mixed sites.
Well both cultural and natural which extends over two cross-border regions of Spain and France, inscribed under criteria iii, iv, v (cultural goods) and vii and viii (natural goods).
World Heritage Correspondents : Philippe Mercier, Drac Occitanie and Jean-Yves Peseux, Dreal Occitanie.
- the "Santiago de Compostela in France"entered on the list in 1998 for serial goods.
Cultural property covering 10 French regions, listed under criteria ii, iv, vi.
World Heritage Correspondent coordinator Philippe Mercier, Drac Occitanie.
- the "Episcopal City of Albi", inscribed on the list in 2010 as World Heritage Cities.
Natural property registered under criteria iv and v.
World Heritage Correspondent Philippe Mercier, Occitanie.
- "The Causses and the Cevennes, cultural landscape of Mediterranean agro-pastoralism", inscribed on the list in 2011, as cultural landscapes and extended properties.
Cultural property that extends over the northern part of the Occitania region, inscribed under criteria iii and v.
World Heritage Correspondents : Didier Soustelle Dreal Occitanie.
- the "Pont du Gard', inscribed on the list in 1985 as monuments and ensembles.
Cultural property registered under criteria i, iii and iv.
- the "Fortified city historical of Carcassonne", listed in 1997 as monuments and ensembles.
Cultural property registered under criteria ii and iv.
- the "Fortifications of Vauban", inscribed on the 2008 list as serial monuments.
Cultural property registered under criteria i,ii and iv. The components of the Mont-Dauphin stronghold and the enclosure and citadel of Mont-Louis are protected in the Occitanie region.
- "The Square House of Nîmes", listed in 2023.
Cultural property registered under criterion iv.
- the "Primary forest of the Massane", listed in 2007.
The Massane Primary Forest, located in Occitania, is part of the "Primary and ancient beech forests of the Carpathians and other regions of Europe".
Transnational natural property, listed under criterion ix
The selection criteria
To be included on the World Heritage List, sites must have outstanding universal value and meet at least one of the ten selection criteria. These criteria are explained in the guidelines to guide the implementation of the World Heritage Convention which is, together with the text of the Convention, the main working tool for everything related to World Heritage. The criteria are regularly revised by the Committee to keep pace with the evolution of the concept of World Heritage itself.
Until the end of 2004, World Heritage sites were selected on the basis of six cultural and four natural criteria. With the adoption of the revised Operational Guidelines, there is only one set of ten criteria.
Cultural criteria | Natural criteria | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Guidelines 2002 | (i) | (ii) | (iii) | (iv) | (v) | (vi) | (i) | (ii) | (iii) | (iv) |
Guidelines 2005 | (i) | (ii) | (iii) | (iv) | (v) | (vi) | (viii) | (ix) | (vii) | (x) |
Criteria
- (i) represent a masterpiece of human creative genius;
- (ii) show a considerable exchange of influences during a given period or in a given cultural area, on the development of architecture or technology, monumental arts, city planning or landscape creation;
- (iii) bear unique or at least exceptional witness to a living or extinct cultural tradition or civilization;
- (iv) provide a prominent example of a type of construction or architectural, technological or landscape ensemble illustrating one or more significant periods of human history;
- (v) be a prominent example of traditional human settlement, traditional land or sea use, which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or of human interaction with the environment, especially when it isit has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible mutation;
- (vi) be directly or materially associated with living events or traditions, ideas, beliefs or artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria) ;
- (vii) represent natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance;
- (viii) be eminently representative examples of the great stages of the history of the earth, including the testimony of life, of geological processes in progress in the development of terrestrial forms or of geomorphic or physiographic elements of great significance;
- (ix) be eminently representative examples of ongoing ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of ecosystems and communities of terrestrial, aquatic, coastal and marine plants and animals;
- (x) contain the most representative and important natural habitats for the in situ conservation of biological diversity, including those where threatened species with outstanding universal value from a science or conservation perspective survive.
The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of assets are also important considerations.
Since 1992, the major interactions between humans and the natural environment have been recognized as constituting cultural landscapes.
Contacts
- Philippe Mercier
Head of Mission Unesco and International Relations
interdepartmental coordinator
Drac Occitanie
philippe.mercier[@]culture.gouv.fr
Partager la page