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European Themeroute | Xtra: UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Europe's industrial heritage is represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List by 45 sites. These are either individual sites (such as the Völklingen Ironworks in Völklingen/D), groups of sites (such as the 4 Major Mining Sites of Wallonia/B) or landscapes or towns influenced by industrialization ... more
Industrial heritage sites of outstanding universal value: European industrial properties on UNESCO's World Heritage List
Europe's industrial heritage is represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List by 45 sites. These are either
- individual sites (such as the Völklingen Ironworks in Völklingen/D),
- groups of sites (such as the 4 Major Mining Sites of Wallonia/B) or
- landscapes or towns influenced by industrialization (such as Blaenavon Industrial Landscape in South Wales/GB, the Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin/F or the city of Ivrea/I, shaped by the Olivetti company) as well as
- industrial monuments as part of World Heritage Sites (such as the silk weavers' quarter in the Historic Site of Lyon/F),
all of outstanding universal value, which is a requirement for inscription as a World Heritage Site.
Accordingly, in our list you will find individual sites, linear sites and industrial landscapes that have been inscribed on the World Heritage List. The "formal" names of the industrial properties on the World Heritage List can be found in our link list (see "Related Links"); at the bottom of the link list you can also find the industrial WHS outside Europe (15).
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Blegny | Belgium
Les Gueules Noires - the black faces: That’s the way the Walloons called their coal buddies. Italians, Czechs, Hungarians, Poles, Russians, Turks and of course Belgians labored in teams to feed the insatiable blast furnaces around Liege with coal. At the closing in 1980 Blegny mine was the oldest ...
Blegny Mine World Heritage Site
Domaine Touristique de Blegny-Mine
Rue Lambert Marlet, 23
4670 Blegny, Belgium
Marcinelle | Belgium
Two silent pithead winding gears tower over the redbrick gable of the Bois de Cazier colliery near Charleroi. The colliery has now ceased operations but in August 1956 it was the site of one of the most tragic accidents in European mining history; a disaster that killed a total of 262 workers. A ...
Le Bois du Cazier World Heritage Site
Rue de Cazier 80
6001 Marcinelle, Belgium
Alfeld (Leine) | Germany
Why is it that a boot-last factory in rural Lower Saxony becomes a turning point in modern architecture? The former warehouse of the Fagus Factory turns that question into an exciting story, displayed on five floors, and recounting various aspects that still shape our reception of architecture. This ...
Fagus Factory World Heritage Site
Hannoversche Strasse 58
31061 Alfeld (Leine), Germany
Essen | Germany
Zollverein is the meeting place for past, present and future. The past is explored by the "Heritage Trail", bringing to life the history and technology of what was once Europe's largest coal mine. What was it like when the rhythm of gigantic machines and conveyor belts determined the lives of 5,000 ...
Zollverein Mine and Coking Plant World Heritage Site
Besucherzentrum Zollverein
Zeche Zollverein Schacht XII
Gebäude A 14 / Kohlenwäsche
Gelsenkirchener Str. 181
45309 Essen, Germany
Goslar | Germany
Narrow, crudely hewed out mining galleries: damp rock: glittering coloured crystal minerals. Suddenly the seemingly enchanted underground kingdom springs to life. Rushing water: a mighty scoop wheel creaks into action: above it rises the remarkably genuine sound of crackling fire and bursting rock. ...
World Heritage Site Rammelsberg - Museum and Visitors Mine
Bergtal 19
38640 Goslar, Germany
Völklingen | Germany
The Völklinger Hütte (ironworks) in Germany’s Saarland, which was shut down in 1986, can be justifiably described as an industrial dinosaur. It extends over an area of 600,000 square metres and exemplifies the combined power of more than 100 years of iron and steel manufacturing. It was the first ...
World Heritage Site Voelklingen Iron Works
Europäisches Zentrum für Kunst und Industriekultur
Rathausstraße 75
66302 Völklingen, Germany
Lemmer | Netherlands
A celebration of technology – that's at the heart of the Wouda Steam Pumping Station's machine room near the village of Lemmer in Friesland. The four double steam engines, coupled with powerful flywheels driving eight round centrifugal pumps, are all sparkling and gleaming as on their very first ...
Ir. D.F. Wouda Steam Pumping Station World Heritage Site
Ir. D.F. Woudagemaal
Gemaalweg 1
8531 PS Lemmer, Netherlands
Rjukan | Norway
Seldom are nature and technology located so unexpectedly near to one another. A waterfall thunders into the depths right next to the old hydroelectric power station built in 1911, with which the Norsk Hydro company catapulted the rural parish of Rjukan into the industrial era. There is nothing to ...
Norwegian Industrial Workers Museum World Heritage Site
Norsk Industriarbeidermuseum
Vemork
3661 Rjukan, Norway
Tarnowskie Góry | Poland
The shine of the carbide lamps flit about the underground "Silver Chamber". Look over there! Aren't these two miners working the dolomite rock with hammer and chisel? In the distance you can hear the rattle of pit cars, interrupted by the sound of explosions and hammer strikes. The next gallery is ...
Historic Silver Mine World Heritage Site
Zabytkowa Kopalnia Srebra
ul. Szczęść Boże 81
42-600 Tarnowskie Góry, Poland
Wieliczka | Poland
All of the sudden, a world of salt deep underground surrounds the visitor. Miles of galleries, winding stairs, towering halls, groups of sculptures and reliefs carved out of salt in the chandelier light of underground chapels, the world's largest wooden mining machine, a luxurious 19th-century ...
Cracow Salt-Works Museum in Wieliczka World Heritage Site
Muzeum Żup Krakowskich Wieliczka
Daniłowicza 10
32-020 Wieliczka, Poland
Almadén | Spain
The "Sistine Chapel" of mining heritage lies 50 metres below the surface of Almadén: the gallery of San Andrés. Visitors of the Mining Park are able to reach it by taking a miner's cage down into the former cinnabar mine of the village. Tunnels and drifts that are centuries old lead them to a huge ...
Almadén Mining Park World Heritage Site
Parque Minero de Almadén
Cerco San Teodoro
13400 Almadén, Spain
Falun | Sweden
The contrast could not be greater, hamlets and small villages bordering idyllic lakes, set within an expanse of woodland. Then, suddenly a red gorge appears: The Falun Mine. Once the world’s largest copper mine and today the heart of a unique historic industrial landscape, which was designated by ...
Falun Mine, World Heritage
Falu Gruva
Gruvgatan 44
791 61 Falun, Sweden
Grimeton | Sweden
In the age of the cell phone almost every place on earth can be reached within seconds. That said, less than 100 years ago wireless communication demanded gigantic technical equipment. The clearest example of this is the radio station in Grimeton near Varberg that was built in 1924 on the southwest ...
World Heritage Grimeton Radio Station
Radiostationen 72
432 98 Grimeton, Sweden
Blaenavon | United Kingdom
A small town – with a huge effect. The South Wales town of Blaenavon was once the spearhead of the industrial revolution. For 200 years everything revolved around coal and iron here in the Afon Lwyd Valley. This not only affected the landscape. It also affected the people. To such an extent that ...
Big Pit: National Coal Museum World Heritage Site
NP4 9XP Blaenavon, United Kingdom
Cromford | United Kingdom
The first modern factory in history was built in Cromford in the Derwent valley, not far from Nottingham. The Derwent is anything but a fast-flowing river. That said it flows quickly enough to be able to drive waterwheels. Richard Arkwright, a former wigmaker, recognised this fact and promptly ...
Cromford Mills World Heritage Site
Cromford Mill
DE4 3RQ Cromford, United Kingdom
Lanark | United Kingdom
A small village nestles in the heart of a romantic landscape, and yet cotton was once manufactured here in large quantities. New Lanark was created for this very reason alone. The powerful currents of the River Clyde were the driving force behind Scotland's most profitable spinning mills, the first ...
New Lanark World Heritage Site
New Lanark Mills
ML11 9DB Lanark, United Kingdom
Telford | United Kingdom
Length: 30.6 metres. Height: 16.75 metres. Weight: 378 tons. These are the basic facts about the Iron Bridge, which spans the Severn Valley in Telford. But who can regard the history of the first ever iron bridge in mere statistics? It is universally recognised as the symbol of the industrial ...
Iron Bridge World Heritage Site
Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust
Coach Road
Coalbrookdale
TF8 7DQ Telford, United Kingdom
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Capriate San Gervasio | Italy
Crespi d’Adda is a community where textiles were manufactured in a mill completed in 1878, but it is important chiefly as a model community, designed by Silvio Benigno Crespi n (1868-1944), who had studied the textile industry in Cologne and Oldham and in France. The village is one of the most ...
Crespi d’Adda World Heritage Site
piazzale Vittorio Veneto 1
24042 Capriate San Gervasio, Italy
Getxo | Spain
Europe’s first transporter bridge, one where vehicles are conveyed across a river on a gondola suspended from a high-level span of steel girders, crosses the River Nervion, or Ria de Bilbao, between the communities of Portugalete and Getxo, downstream from the city of Bilbao. It was designed by the ...
Bizkaia Bridge
Puente Bizkaia | Puente Colgante
48930 Getxo, Spain
Wrexham | United Kingdom
The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct carries the waterway originally called the Ellesmere Canal, but now the Llangollen Canal, some 38 m above the River Dee, and is 308 m long. It was completed in 1805 under the direction of Thomas Telford, who in the initial stages of the project was responsible to William ...
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct
Station Road
Trevor
LL20 7YQ Wrexham, United Kingdom