Decision 45 COM 7A.55

Historic Centre of Vienna (Austria) (C 1033)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Having examined Document WHC/23/45.COM/7A.Add,
2. Recalling Decisions 37 COM 7B.71, 39 COM 7B.94, 40 COM 7B.49, 41 COM 7B.42, 42 COM 7A.5, 43 COM 7A.45, and 44 COM 7A.32 adopted at its 37th (Phnom Penh, 2013), 39th (Bonn, 2015), 40th (Istanbul/UNESCO, 2016), 41st (Krakow, 2017), 42nd (Manama, 2018), 43rd (Baku, 2019) and extended 44th (Fuzhou/online, 2021) sessions respectively,
3. Commends the State Party on the progress made in implementing many of the adopted corrective measures and previous Committee decisions, with the aim to enhance the management system of the property, in particular:
   1. anchoring the World Heritage status of the property in the Viennese Building Code as the most important legal planning tool of the City of Vienna,
   2. elaboration, adoption and publication of a new Management Plan for the property,
   3. initial steps towards enhanced legal protection of World Heritage in Austria,
   4. the forthcoming Heritage Impact Assessment (HIA) for the Schwarzenberg Gardens and related recommendations for greater legal protection of historic gardens,
   5. ongoing development of the roof cadastre;
4. Encourages the State Party to continue with the implementation of the adopted corrective measures in consultation with the World Heritage Centre and Advisory Bodies, with a view to achieving the Desired state of conservation for the removal of the property from the List of World Heritage in Danger (DSOCR), in accordance with the established timetable to which the State Party has proposed slight revisions;
5. Accepts the revised and updated Management Plan for the property, notes that the corrective measures adopted require that the efficacy of the Management Plan be proven in practice through monitoring and evaluation over a period of five years, and requests the State Party to ensure that subsequent revisions address the matters raised in the 2022 ICOMOS technical review and to report on the proposed monitoring and evaluation process;
6. Reminds the State Party of the Committee’s previous requests to submit final plans and designs for the Wien Museum to the World Heritage Centre for review by the Advisory Bodies;
7. Acknowledges the efforts by the State Party and many other institutions and organisations to mitigate the negative impact of the proposed Heumarkt Neu project through design amendments, and undertaking an HIA of the revised proposal using a methodology which is rigorous, authoritative, and compliant with the previous HIA, but notes that this process has not resulted in an outcome, which achieves the DSOCR, including the verification requirements of the corrective measures;
8. Notes also that redevelopment is possible on the Heumarkt Neu site, in order to achieve a project that does not adversely impact the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of the property necessarily involving a reduction, and further acknowledges the progress made by the State Party in developing a further revised scheme with a reduced height and volume;
9. Further notes that, in line with previous Committee decisions, as well as the DSOCR and its corrective measures for the property, the further revised scheme will need to be assessed using the methodology of previous HIAs and notes furthermore that the determination of height, floorspace and built form which would achieve the desired improvement, such that the proposed development would not adversely impact the OUV of the property, could be pursued through the modelling used to assess visual impact which informed the previous HIAs;
10. Requests the State Party to submit to the World Heritage Centre, by 1 February 2024, an updated report on the state of conservation of the property and the implementation of the above, for examination by the World Heritage Committee at its 46th session;
11. Decides to retain the Historic Centre of Vienna (Austria) on the List of World Heritage in Danger.