The Spanish Group of World Heritage Cities celebrates today the 40th Anniversary of UNESCO’s World Heritage Convention under the theme "World Heritage and sustainable development: the role of local communities".
Celebrate it with us!
In 1960 an extraordinary event focussed the attention of the international community on protecting a historic monument: when the Abu Simbel temple was threatened by the construction of a dam on the Nile, 50 countries worked together to transfer it to an area safe from flooding.
Looking back, this was the first step towards the international community considering that some of the planet’s treasures are of interest to all men and beginning to think of ways of protecting them.
Twelve years later, on November 16, 1972, UNESCO approved the World Heritage Convention, which is aimed at protecting cultural and natural sites considered of exceptional universal value.
Today, the Convention has been adopted by 190 countries and the World Heritage List includes 962 sites located in 157 countries.
This year, under the theme “World Heritage and sustainable development: the role of local communities”, the Spanish Group of World Heritage Cities is meeting to celebrate the Convention’s 40th anniversary, highlighting its values by means of a series of events and activities open to all the public.
The Spanish Group of World Heritage Cities is made up of Alcalá de Henares, Ávila, Cáceres, Córdoba, Cuenca, Ibiza/Eivissa, Mérida, Salamanca, San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Santiago de Compostela, Segovia, Tarragona and Toledo.
+ info: www.40aniversariopatrimoniomundial.com