UNESCO World Heritage

Unesco World Heritage
UNESCO  adopted the "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage in November 1972. Since then 679 cultural properties and 174 natural sites were declared part of UNESCO's world heritage.  25 further monuments are mixed cultural and natural properties. The central idea behind the World Heritage Convention is that "parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of outstanding interest and therefore need to be preserved as part of the world heritage of mankind as a whole."

The World Heritage Committee
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee consists of 21 States Parties from every continent and culture. It meets once a year to decide whether a property is inscribed on the World Heritage List and to check whether listed sites still meet the criteria of the World Heritage Convention. By ratifying the Convention, member states have demonstrated their commitment to financing the protection and conservation of the World Heritage sites on their territory.

The cultural heritage
Only the sites the Committee considers as having an outstanding universal value for historic, creative or scientific reasons are inscribed. In deciding on whether a property is inscribed the overall criteria of uniqueness, authenticity (historic truthfulness) and integrity (soundness) are applied. The term "cultural heritage" was coined by Henri-Baptiste Grégoire, Bishop of Blois, during the 18th century. The event that triggered the World Heritage Convention was the construction of the Aswan High Dam in Egypt in 1960: UNESCO launched an international safeguarding campaign to protect the Nubian monuments and preserve them for future generations.

World Heritage Sites
Salzburg's historic center was inscribed in the World Heritage List in 1996 together with Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. Other World Heritage Sites in Austria include the historic centers in Vienna and Graz, the Wachau cultural landscape, the Semmering Railway in Lower Austria and the Hallstatt-Dachstein Salzkammergut cultural landscape. UNESCO also has a red list of World Heritage in Danger, none of which however are located in Austria.