Additional information received by ICOMOS On 3 September 2014, ICOMOS sent a letter to the The par force hunting landscape State Party requesting clarification concerning the (Denmark) rationale adopted to select the components of the series and to define the boundaries of the property and of its No 1469 buffer zone. Additional information concerning the comparative analysis, cartographic documentation, protection and management, and resources, was also requested. The State Party responded on 21 October 2014 and the additional information provided has been Official name as proposed by the State Party incorporated into the relevant sections. The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand On 26 November 2014, the State Party also informed that Location the private owners whose properties are included within North Zealand the nominated area have been informed of the Capital Region of Denmark (Hovedstaden) nomination. Brief description ICOMOS sent a second letter to the State Party on 22 The par force hunting landscape in North Zealand December 2014 seeking further additional information on encompasses three distinct forests and landscapes – the following points: Store Dyrehave, Gribskov and Jægersborg Hegn/Jægersborg Dyrehave – which have been chosen • among the extant portions of 'designed forests and the need that further hunting rides be encompassed grounds' in North Zealand to illustrate the designed within the nominated property or, at least, within the setting where the Danish kings and their court used to buffer zone, they being crucial for the understanding of practice the 'par force' hunt or chasse à courre, and the proposed Outstanding Universal Value of the par displayed their ambitions and power throughout the 17th- force hunting landscape; • 18th centuries AD. the need that all rides, be they publicly or privately owned, be protected for their cultural value; • Category of property the need to modify the buffer zone so as to In terms of categories of cultural property set out in encompass areas and attributes that are functionally Article I of the 1972 World Heritage Convention of 1972, important as a support to the property and its this is a serial nomination of three sites. protection; • provide further information useful to justify criterion (iv) In terms of the Operational Guidelines for the which has been found relevant during the evaluation Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (July process. 2013) paragraph 47, it is a cultural landscape. The State Party responded on 28 February 2015 and the information provided has been incorporated into the 1 Basic data relevant sections of this report. Date of ICOMOS approval of this report Included in the Tentative List 12 March 2015 8 January 2010 International Assistance from the World Heritage Fund for preparing the Nomination 2 The property None Description Date received by the World Heritage Centre The nominated serial property is located in the northern 23 January 2014 part of Zealand some 30km north north-east of Copenhagen. Its gently undulating territory was shaped Background during the last Ice Age (22,000–12,000 BP) and features This is a new nomination. low hills, once entirely covered with forests, small lakes, and fertile cultivated plains, rich in wildlife. This Consultations landscape offered ideal conditions to create a large th ICOMOS has consulted its International Scientific hunting reserve and, since the 16 century AD, the Committee on Cultural Landscapes and several Danish kings progressively developed a royal hunting independent experts. estate extending over a large part of North Zealand known as the Gribskov (etymologically 'unclaimed Technical Evaluation Mission forest'). This is attested to by several surviving forested An ICOMOS technical evaluation mission visited the areas interspersed with open fields, parks and property from 24 to 26 September 2014. settlements, cut through by straight roads, rides and 149 tracks, and many royal castles and residences that component encompasses different habitats: bog, punctuate the region. meadows, fields and plains. The nominated series comprises three components – Gribskov Store Dyrehave, Gribskov and Jægersborg Gribskov (etymologically 'unclaimed forest) is the second Hegn/Jægersborg Dyrehave - selected among the extant component of the series and the second largest forest in portions of 'designed forests' of the region to illustrate Denmark, covering 2,195.7ha. The geomorphology of the the designed landscape where the Danish kings and area exhibits a series of low curved moraine deposits their court used to practice the 'par force' hunt or chasse running north-south and formed by glacial recession. à courre, that is, the mounted chase of a single stag with Once conjoined with Store Dyrehave, with which it formed dogs. This form of courtly hunting found its formalisation one continuous hunting estate, Gribskov is now separated between the Middle Ages and the late 16th century and by the urban growth of Hillerød. However, Gribskov’s reached its apogee between the 17th and the late 18th hunting landscape design shares the same road network centuries, when the European absolute monarchs as Store Dyrehave, as some roads surviving in the same transformed it into a display of power. place and direction demonstrate, although it has its own originating central star (Stjernen). Due to its topography The rules of this type of hunt and the symbolic and its poor soils, the central part of the Gribskov was dimensions associated with it (demonstration of power never cultivated and retains a rich wildlife. and strength) required an appropriate setting where the ritual could take place. The existence of a network of Jægersborg Dyrehave / Jægersborg Hegn straight rides to chase the prey and coordinate its pursuit and trapping was crucial. This road system also The third component (1,490.7ha) comprises two areas – responded to symbolic functions: giving order to the 'wild Jægersborg Dyrehave and Hegn – separated by a nature' of forests and transforming it into a civilized narrow river valley running west to east. The soft relief of hunting landscape, thus celebrating the power of the the area resulted from the combination of sedimentation king. and glacial erosion. Jægersborg Dyrehave includes open freshwater meadows, commons and bogs, The hunting forests in North Zealand were cut through surrounded by broadleaved forest with mature trees. with rides in a rigid grid pattern combined with diagonals, Before becoming the hunting park of Jægersborg forming 8-pointed stars. The grid comprises radiating Dyrehave, the area served as the fields of the village of roads – passing through the originating centre of the grid Stokkerup, subsequently destroyed. Because of that, the – and connecting roads which linked the radiating roads road system is said to differ from the other components, in a regular network of rides and tracks. being more elaborate in the wooded areas. The roads here were never numbered nor marked by stone posts. The composition of the forest is based on broadleaved The road network of this component has suffered trees (beech and oak primarily but also other modifications over the centuries, but the boundary of the broadleaved species) in different percentages in each original park has been preserved and it is still marked by component. However, subsequent forest management a wooden fence as in the late 17th century. The forest is introduced non-native conifers (common spruce) in the one of the most popular in Denmark; deer have been 19th-20th centuries AD. reintroduced and nowadays each year the St. Hubert's Chase takes place within it, attended by the royal family Store Dyrehave and attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors. Store Dyrehave (or 'large deer park') is the first The Eremitageslottet, the baroque royal hunting lodge component of the series: it has an irregular quadrangular that in 1734-1736 replaced a previous wooden shape, encompassing a smooth hilly area of glacial banqueting house, stands at the highest point of the origins and covering 1,073.4ha. The geomorphological central plain, enjoying an open view across the park and features of the area have been incorporated into the towards Øresund in Sweden. The Eremitageslottet is still landscape design: the highest point of the forested area used by the royal family for hunting lunches and during has been used as the originating point of the double St. Hubert's Chase. orthogonal grid of roads that subdivides the forest into parcels, and shapes the hunting landscape. The The nomination dossier also describes further heritage orientation of the grid was determined by the NW-SE elements which, despite not being included in the direction of the existing royal road to Copenhagen. At nominated property nor in the buffer zones, contribute to the centre of the road star (Kongestjernen) was placed a the understanding of the formation of the large hunting stone – the Kongestenen – showing a compass rose and estate in North Zealand. They are: Frederiksborg Slot, Christian V's monogram with a royal crown, which is still erected in Hillerød in the late 16th century and enlarged at in place. Eight radiating roads spring from the the beginning of the 17th, with its Lille Dyrehave (small Kongestjernen: they were not named, just numbered deer park), at the western edge of the Gribskov; anti-clockwise. Each road is marked by a stone with the Fredensborg Slot, on the eastern bank of Esrum Sø, built number carved on it both at its beginning and at