Evaluations of Cultural Properties
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WHC-02/CONF.201/INF.2 WHC-02/CONF.202/INF.4 UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE CONVENTION BUREAU 26th session of the Bureau (8 – 13 April 2002) Paris (France) WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE 26th session of the Committee (24 – 29 June 2002) Budapest (Hungary) EVALUATIONS OF CULTURAL PROPERTIES Prepared by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) The IUCN and ICOMOS evaluations are made available to members of the Bureau and the World Heritage Committee. A small number of additional copies are also available from the secretariat. This volume will be used for both the World Heritage Bureau and the Committee. Thank you 2002 WORLD HERITAGE LIST Nominations 2002 Introduction A Nominations of cultural properties to the World Heritage List A.1 Archaeological sites Mexico - The Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche 1 A.2 Historic towns Germany - Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar 5 Hungary - Andrassy Avenue and the Underground (extension to “Budapest, 11 the Banks of the Danube and the Buda Castle Quarter”) Italy - The Rebuilding of Val de Noto in the Late Baroque 14 Period (South-East Sicily) Morocco - Portuguese City of El Jadida (Mazagan) 19 Suriname - The Historic Inner City of Paramaribo 28 A.3 Religious properties Poland - Wooden Churches of Southern Little Poland 31 A.4 Architectural monuments and ensembles Hungary - The Medieval Royal Seat and Parkland at Visegrad 36 A.5 Cultural Landscapes Germany - Upper Middle Rhine Valley 41 Hungary - The Tokaji Wine Region Cultural Landscape 46 Italy - The Sacri Monti of Piedmont and Lombardy 50 B Nominations of mixed properties to the World Heritage List Egypt - Saint Catherine Area 55 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON MONUMENTS AND SITES (ICOMOS) World Heritage Nominations 2002 1 Analysis of nominations •= ICOMOS International Scientific Committees; In 2002 ICOMOS has been requested to evaluate 13 new •= individual ICOMOS members with special expertise, and deferred nominations of and extensions to cultural and identified after consultation with International and mixed properties. National Committees; The geographical spread is as follows: •= non-ICOMOS members with special expertise, identified after consultation within the ICOMOS Europe 8 nominations (2 deferred, 1 networks. extension) 4 countries Concurrently, experts were selected on the same basis for evaluation missions to nominated properties. The same Latin America/ 3 nominations (1 deferred) procedure was adopted for selecting these experts as that Caribbean 3 countries just described. The missions were required to study the criteria relating to authenticity, protection, conservation, Arab States 2 nominations (1 mixed site) and management (Operational Guidelines, para 24(b)). 2 countries Experts are sent photocopies of dossiers (or relevant parts No cultural or mixed nominations were received from of them, where the dossiers are extensive). They also Africa or the Asia-Pacific Region. receive documentation on the Convention and detailed guidelines for evaluation missions. The distribution of categories of site was as follows: Missions were sent to all the new nominations. The experts Mixed sites 1 were drawn from Bulgaria, Colombia, France, Greece, The Cultural landscapes 3 Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, and the ICOMOS Historic towns 6 World Heritage Secretariat. Monuments or groups 2 Archaeological sites 1 b Evaluations and recommendations In view of the small number of nominations received for On the basis of the reports prepared by the two groups of 2002, as a result of the application of the revised timetable, experts, draft evaluations and recommendations (in either it would be inappropriate to compare the 2002 figures with English or French) were prepared and considered by the those of previous years. ICOMOS World Heritage Panel and Executive Committee at a meeting in Paris on 17–18 January 2002. Following this meeting, revised evaluations have been prepared in 2 ICOMOS procedure both working languages, printed, and despatched to the a Preparatory work UNESCO World Heritage Centre for distribution to members of the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee Following an initial study of the dossiers, expert advice for its 26th Session in April 2002. was sought on the outstanding universal value of the nominated properties, with reference to the six criteria listed in the Operational Guidelines (1999), para 24(a). Paris For this purpose, ICOMOS called upon the following: January 2002 Category of property Calakmul (Mexico) In terms of the categories of cultural property set out in Article 1 of the 1972 World Heritage Convention, this is a site. No 1061 History and Description History Identification The settlement of the heavily forested Tierras Bajas region, now divided between Mexico and Guatemala, by the Maya Nomination The Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, dates to the end of the Middle Pre-Classic Period (900–300 Campeche BCE). It was formerly considered to have been an essentially egalitarian agricultural society, based on small settlements Location Calakmul Municipality, Campeche spread throughout the region, but recent discoveries have Province shown that large monumental ceremonial structures were being built, indicating a more advanced, complex form of State Party Mexico society, capable of creating such enormous structures. Date 24 August 2000 Recent excavations in Structure II at Calakmul have shown that between 400 and 200 BCE a monument some 12m high was built here. This challenged the previously held view that Nakbé (Guatemala) had been the main centre in the latter part of the Middle Pre-Classic Period. By the time of the transition to the Late Pre-Classic Period Calakmul had Justification by State Party become one of the two dominant cities in the region, the heartland of the Maya world, the other being Tikal. By virtue of the size of its main structures and its extent, this Excavations have shown that they flourished, in a state of is a town that is comparable with other, better known sites of almost continual warfare with one another, until around 900 the Mayan culture that are already inscribed on the World CE. Much light has been thrown on the turbulent history of Heritage List such as Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén Itzá in this period by the many stelae found on the two sites, and in Mexico and Tikal or Copán in Central America. However, it particular Calakmul. contains structures that are older than those to be found in these sites. In Calakmul the layout of certain groups of The apogee of Calakmul is considered to have been in the buildings and the general organization of the urban centre Late Classic Period (542–695 CE). The centre of Maya presents characteristics that also apply to the other sites in power then moved gradually further north, into Yucatán, to the Petén such as Uaxactún and Tikal. Palenque, Uxmal, and finally Chichén Itzá, and by around 900 CE Calakmul was no longer a city with any influence. It The large city of Calakmul represents outstanding testimony was found to have been completely abandoned in the 1530s, to the exchange of influences over more than twelve when Alonso de Ávila carried out an exploratory mission in centuries, beginning in the 4th century BCE, in the fields of this part of the peninsula, which at that time was occupied political organization and cultural development over a vast only by people known as cehaches, who were probably the area of the Mayan region, between Copán to the south, descendants of the inhabitants of Calakmul and the other Edzná to the north, and Palenque to the west, which was once powerful cities of the region. intensified by its relationships and its rivalry with Tikál. Criterion ii It was not until 1931 that the existence of the site was recorded by Cyrus L Lundell during a botanical expedition. Calakmul is the site which, up to the present, contains more It was he who gave it its present name, made up of ca (two), stelae in situ, a series of tombs, some of them royal, with a lak (near), and mul (mountain = pyramid) – ie "two rich variety of ornaments, ritual ceramic vessels, and a large neighbouring pyramids." number of jade masks. This assemblage of elements provides unique evidence of their kind about a rich vanished Description civilization. Criterion iii The archaeological site is located within the Calakmul The dimensions of its pyramidal structures, the singular Biosphere Reserve (a MAB site since 1993), which was nature of certain constructional (barrel vaulting, stuccoed created in 1989 and is the largest reserve in Mexico. The surfaces) and architectural solutions (the orientation of Reserve covers 723,185ha, with two zonas núcleo of openings, adaptation to the topography of the site), as well as 147,195ha and 100,345ha respectively inside it, within the composition of open spaces and the distribution of built which strict controls are exercised. The archaeological volumes, make Calakmul an outstanding example of zone of 3000ha nominated for inscription on the World architecture which illustrates a significant period of human Heritage List is situated in close proximity to the southern history. Criterion iv zona núcleo 1. The remainder of the southern zone constitutes a substantial buffer zone, all of it under dense tropical forest cover. 1 The portion of what is recognized to have been a very 1972 Federal Law on Archaeological, Artistic, and Historical extensive ancient settlement that has so far been explored Monuments (currently in the course of revision). consists of three large groups of structures. On the west Management there is a large group of platforms with buildings on them around open spaces, covering c 450m by 350m. A similar, Ownership of the territories within the Reserve is 48.4% slightly smaller, group lies to the east. In between these is Federal and 49.6% communal. Only 2% is in private hands. the central zone, covering a roughly square area measuring The archaeological site is Federally owned, under the 400m by 400m, in which very large public open spaces and provisions of the 1972 Law.