| 
| 
Hallstatt - Dachstein / Salzkammergut - UNESCO World Cultural and World Natural Heritage
As a further Austrian entry, and together with Schönbrunn Palace as an individual memorial, and the Old Town complex of Salzburg, since December 1997 the “Hallstatt - Dachstein / Salzkammergut” region has joined the list of the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites.
With entry into the exclusive UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites list, this unique region has been given a special honour worldwide. The Cultural Heritage committee justified its decision with the words: “With the Hallstatt - Dachstein / Salzkammergut alpine region we have an exceptional example of a natural landscape of unique beauty and special scientific importance, which is also a witness to earlier and continuous human, economic and cultural activity. This cultural landscape unites nature and culture in a harmonic and mutually complementary way.”
Through this distinction the Hallstatt - Dachstein / Salzkammergut region now enjoys the same significance on the UNESCO list as the Pyramids at Giza, Cologne Cathedral, the Pompeii Excavations, the Great Wall of China, and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador, to give only a few examples.
The previous 522 UNESCO World Cultural Sites in 112 countries all share an unusual, universal significance as a mutual heritage for humanity. All are under the special protection of the cultural and natural heritage, the most successful UNESCO instrument of protection signed by 152 states, with Austria among them.
The richly facetted landscape in its historical and cultural dimension, with its unique cave systems and it diversity of flora and fauna, is such a complex phenomenon that the Hallstatt region is not only a cultural heritage, it is also a natural heritage of the highest international rank. Together with Ayers Rock in Australia, and a Philippine island, Hallstatt is also a memorial to humanity in the UNESCO World Heritage List, which unites the aspects of both nature and culture.
The formulated basics for the Republic of Austria’s application for acceptance, which also met the severe UNESCO selection criteria, also described the multifaceted levels of their importance. In overview, justification for the high UNESCO distinction can be depicted as four essential components:
• The archaeological heritage
• The architectonic heritage
• The natural heritage
• The culturally historic heritage
The architectonic heritage
Following prehistoric mining, the production of salt under the auspices of the state from the Middle Ages achieved a prime period of 100 years, which left behind important representative buildings. Gothic, Baroque and historicism buildings mark the image and aspect of the Salzkammergut to this day.
The archaeological heritage
The Hallstatt Salzberg is the site of the oldest salt mine in the world, which is still worked commercially today. The rich archaeological finds from the Late Iron Age named an entire cultural epoch (800 to 400 B.C.) the Hallstatt Period, which is internationally known. Through the continuity of salt mining, the Salzkammergut is thus also the oldest industrial landscape in the world.
The natural heritage
The natural landscape of the Dachstein region, with its characteristic cave systems and karst formations, the diverse and unique ecological niches of flora and fauna, indicates the quality of a nature park of world rank. The rich deposits of salt in this landscape form the close connection between the natural and cultural heritage. Salt and the salt industry have been a founder of culture here and the driving force of cultural development.
The culturally historic heritage
The culturally historic heritage in the widest sense includes, for example, the specific economic forms of forestry brought about by the salt mining, which has made the landscape characteristically recognisable. Countless examples from literature, art, scientific history, the history of tourism and local customs are all in immediate connection with the “Hallstatt - Dachstein / Salzkammergut” region and are associated with it to this day.
Ferienregion Dachstein-Salzkammergut
Tourismusverband Inneres Salzkammergut
Geschäftsstelle Hallstatt
Seestraße 169, 4830 Hallstatt
Tel.: +43 (0)6134 8208
e-Mail: hallstatt@dachstein-salzkammergut.at
Web: http://www.oberoesterreich.at/hallstatt
previous
print Page
recommend this Page