UNESCO Adds New European World Heritage Sites

Dozens of new sites have been added to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2023. These were announced this month at the 45th session of the World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The following chart shows a selection of the new sites located in Europe. The majority of these fall under the category of cultural heritage, such as the Old town of Kuldiga in Latvia and the prehistoric sites of Talayotic Menorca, Spain. Several sites were also added to the List of World Heritage in Danger, including Ukraine’s historic centers of Odesa and Lviv, as well as the Saint Sophia Cathedral and its monastic buildings in Kyiv.

Only nine of the 42 newly inscribed properties worldwide are natural heritage sites, while 33 are cultural. In addition to the volcanoes and forests of Mount Pelée and the Pitons of Northern Martinique in France, other newly listed natural heritage sites include the evaporitic karst and caves of the Northern Apennines in Italy, as well as the Bale Mountains National Park in Ethiopia and the Odzala-Kokoua forest massif in Congo. The ancient fortified city of Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan, located in the West Bank, is also among the sites inscribed by the committee.