UNESCO: Hungarian World Heritage

Olga Boga

Heritage is joining what we bring from the past with what we live with today to pass on to future generations. It is so important for us to save our unique cultural and natural heritage. Places like wilds of East Africa’s Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America are all unique and make up our world’s heritage.

The requirement of the concept of World Heritage is its universal application; these world heritage sites belong to everyone in the world.  The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) works to encourage the protection and preservation of our natural and cultural heritage and is considered to be very conscious about their value to humanity.

Hungarian World Heritage

Budapest, including the Banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter and Andrassy Avenue: its value comes from being one of the world’s most important urban landscapes and reflects the great periods in the history of the Hungarian capital.

The Old Village of Hollókő and its Surroundings: its establishment goes back to the 17th and 18th century and it illustrates rural life before the agricultural revolution of 20th century. It is about 100 kilometers north east of Budapest.  Hollókő is a small community, including rural people. This area mostly consists of farm buildings, orchards, vineyards, meadows and forests.

The Caves of Aggtelek Kars and Slovak Karst: takes a total area of 55,800 hectares (ha). The total of 712 caves make up a typical temperate zone karstic system. Its extreme rare combination of tropical and glacial climatic effects makes this place valuable for studying geological history of millions of years.

The Millenary Benedictine Abbey of Pannonhalma and its Natural Environment: Pannonhalma is a Christian Monastery that has developed over 1,000 years of use. Its location and its discovery show the propagation of the Christianity in Eastern Europe. The first Benedictine monks settled around 996. Then the Hungarians converted it into country’s first school and, in 1055, the first document in Hungarian was written. From its foundation, this monastic community has contributed to culture all over central Europe.

The Hortobagy National Park, the Puszta: this cultural landscape shaped by a pastoral human society still carries the evidence of its traditional use over more than two millennia and reflects the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature. The Puszta lay in an immense area of plains and wetlands in eastern Hungary, which used to be used for grazing of domestic animals.

The Early Christian Necropolis of Pécs (Sopianae): these tombs were decorated in the 4th century in the cemetery of the Roman provincial town of Sopianae (modern Pécs). It is valuable both structurally and architecturally, and it was built for underground burial chambers with memorial chapels above the ground. Their importance also comes from its highly rich decoration of murals and reflecting Christian themes.

The Fertő/Neusiedlersee Cultural Landscape: for eight millennia it has been a meeting place of different cultures. It is surrounded by diverse landscape with rural architecture villages and a couple of 18th and 19th century palaces.

The Tokaj Wine Region Historic Cultural Landscape: reflects the long tradition of wine production in this area.  The famous Tokaj wine is produced in this region and its management has been strictly regulated for three centuries.

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