9 February 2024
The UNESCO Urban Heritage Atlas is new tool and platform prepared by the Culture Sector to support Member States for the conservation and management of historic cities and settlements.
This tool was developed in the framework of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in 2011 to support urban heritage ...
28-29 September 2023
The World Heritage Cities Programme team is delighted to invite you to join the UNESCO Chairs Workshop: Protecting Historic Cities and Landscapes - Compatible Design for New Interventions.
This workshop gathers today and tomorrow international UNESCO Chairs and experts around the table to discuss the management and protection of urban heritage, which will contribute substantially to the ...
12-14 September 2022
On 12, 13 and 14 September 2022, the World Heritage City Lab in Cordoba wrapped up the celebrations of the 10th Anniversary of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation). The event was organised by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, World Monuments Fund Spain, and the Municipality of Cordoba, with the collaboration of American Express, the Mosque-Cathedral ...
30 June 2022
In the context of the HUL Call for Action and building on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Heritage Cities Programme organised a meeting with UNESCO Chairs and Category 2 Centres (C2C) Representatives on the topic "Implementing the HUL Recommendation: a common approach" on 30 June 2022 at 12.00 - 14.00 (CEST).
The event brought together 38 participants from ...
16-17 December 2021
A World Heritage City Lab, organised by the World Heritage Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science of the Netherlands, was held from 16 to 17 December 2021.
The International World Heritage City Lab ‘Historic Cities, Climate Change, Water, and Energy’ was organised in the framework of the 10th Anniversary of the HUL Recommendation, and builds on the 2030 ...
13-14 December 2021
A World Heritage City Lab was held from 13 to 14 December 2021, organised by the World Heritage Centre in collaboration with the Committee for the state preservation of historical and cultural monuments of the City of Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.
This online innovation laboratory, supporting the appropriate management of World Heritage cities, was planned in the context of the 30th ...
30 November 2021
The World Heritage City Lab “World Heritage Sites: Sustainable Development Practices for Urban Heritage” was held on 30 November 2021, dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the inscription of the World Heritage property “Kyiv: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” on the UNESCO World Heritage List and in the framework of the UNESCO HUL Call for ...
28 October 2021 - 2 November 2021
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre (WHC) developed the World Heritage City Dialogues (Dialogues) in 2019 within the context of the World Heritage Cities Programme, one of the six thematic programmes approved and monitored by the World Heritage Committee.
The Dialogues function as an online Forum, which brings together: the site managers of the UNESCO World Heritage cities in each world region, ...
23-24 June 2021
The 10th Anniversary of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation) serves as a catalyst for greater adoptions of the HUL approach.
Serving as a platform to share lessons learned from COVID-19 and to resume discussions on the future of urban management, topics such as public space, renovations, tourism, infrastructure and livelihoods will be explored. ...
17-18 May 2021
Cities and urban settlements are growing exponentially everywhere. According to the studies on population distribution by the United Nations, the number of people living in urban areas is expected to reach 68% of the world’s population by 2050. In particular, the Mediterranean region is among the most densely populated areas around a sea in the world, with a population that has doubled over ...
24 March 2021
The conference "Integrating Urban Heritage in Urban Planning Processes" took place on 24 March 2021 in the context of the 10th anniversary of the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape (HUL Recommendation). The event was organised by the City of Prague in cooperation with the World Heritage Centre, to share and discuss the proposal of its Metropolitan Plan.
During the ...
30 October 2020
The 2020 World Cities Day on 31 October, with the global theme ‘Valuing our communities and cities’, will underline the key role of local communities, at the heart of building sustainable and resilient cities, and further advocate for the importance of people-centered approaches for urban development.
In the context of the celebration of the International World Cities Day, UNESCO in the ...
Protecting Cultural Heritage as a Resource for Sustainable Development of Port Cities (AIVP webinar)
28 October 2020
On 28 October 2020, the international port city organization AIVP (Association Internationale Villes Ports) organized a webinar last October where representatives of UNESCO and the port authorities of Dubrovnik and Dublin were asked to reflect on this issue. Port culture and identity are part of the AIVP agenda for port cities in 2030, which proposes to promote and capitalise on “the specific ...
17-26 June 2020
From 17 to 26 June 2020, UNESCO successfully organised its first World Heritage City Lab, an online innovation laboratory for analysis, assessment, learning, and development of strategies for the protection and management of World Heritage properties in the urban context.
Carried out in collaboration with the Advisory Bodies to the World Heritage Convention— the International Council on ...
17 June 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought the fragility of our cities sharply into focus. In light of the new challenges that the crisis has presented to cities worldwide, UNESCO introduces its World Heritage City Webinar on ‘Re-thinking Urban Heritage for Resilience and Recovery.’
During the Webinar, to be held online on 17 June 2020 from 1pm to 3:30pm Paris time (UTC+2), an international panel of ...
14-17 January 2020
The international experts meeting "Heritage in Urban Contexts: Impacts of Development Projects on World Heritage properties in Cities" took place between 14 and 17 January 2020 at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan. It was co-sponsored by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs and Kyushu University in cooperation with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, ICOMOS and ICCROM.
In recent sessions of the ...
12-13 September 2019
From Modern to Contemporary: Practices in Preserving Architectural Legacy of the 20th Century
Modern Cities Forum “From Modern to Contemporary: Practices in Preserving Architectural Legacy of the 20th Century, Based on Tel Aviv Document for the Modern Cities” is going to be organized on the 12th and 13th of September 2019, Kaunas and Vilnius, Lithuania.
The Kaunas Forum will continue the ...
5-6 March 2018
The workshop is aimed at advancing participants’ knowledge and understanding of the Historic Urban Landscape approach (HUL), thereby promoting its implementation. In particular, attention will be paid to the specificities of applying HUL in World Heritage properties with significant presence of historic walls, fortifications and fortified urban areas.
Co-organizers: World Heritage Centre and ...
20-24 January 2018
The World Heritage Centre and the Ministry of Culture of Algeria will organize from 20 to 24 January 2018 in Algiers an International Expert Meeting on the Conservation and Revitalisation of the Kasbah of Algiers, a World Heritage property, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1992.
The meeting aims to address key issues related to the conservation and management of the site in ...
26 October 2016
This report explores the role of culture in sustainable urban development and aims to become a policy framework document to support national and local governments in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Urban Development as well as the New Urban Agenda, adopted at the Habitat III conference held in Quito, Ecuador from 17 to 20 October 2016.
The launch is taking place as a ...
19-21 October 2016
From 19 to 21 October 2016, the UNESCO Office in Tashkent will organize, in close collaboration with the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the Board of Monuments of Uzbekistan, a consultation meeting in Bukhara (Uzbekistan) to discuss the application of the UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape (HUL, 2011) at two historic centres located within the World Heritage properties ...
1-3 December 2015
The UNESCO’s World Heritage Centre and the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL) in Kuwait organize a regional conference on the theme of urban conservation and the role of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in safeguarding the heritage of urban and architectural modernities in the Arab World. This conference will take place in Kuwait from 1 to 3 December ...
10 November 2014
On 10 novembre 2014, the conference "New Frontiers in Urban Conservation. The challenge of the UNESCO Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscape" was held in the Palazzo Tassoni Estense, Salone d’Onore, via della Ghiara 36, Ferrara. See the programme here.
13 December 2013
On 13 December 2013, the "Reflection meeting on the implementation of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape two years after its adoption (HUL+2)" took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Two years after the adoption of the Recommendation and two years before the submission of a report to the UNESCO General Conference (October 2015), the World Heritage Centre decided to hold a ...
9-11 December 2013
The regional meeting on the implementation of the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in the Arab States will be take place in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, from 9 to 11 December 2013. This meeting, organized by the World Heritage Centre and the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb (RABAT), in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Morocco will be held in the framework of the ...
3-7 October 2013
Programme of the conference
The major objective of this 2-day conference is to promote an understanding of the significance of the twentieth-century heritage, not only with its physical and visual attributes, but also with its historical, cultural and social dimensions. The conference also aims to examine the scope and the challenges of managing this recent heritage within the framework of ...
17-19 September 2013
Organized by the City of Seville as a contribution to the UNESCO Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, the purpose of the conference is to shed more light on concepts, instruments, tools and criteria of management of historic cities.
The conference brings together diverse international specialists. Together they will address the important issue of the insertion of contemporary ...
17-20 September 2013
Organized by the City of Seville as a contribution to the UNESCO Recommendation on historic urban landscapes, the purpose of the conference is to shed more light on concepts, instruments, tools and criteria of management of historic cities.The conference brings together diverse international specialists. Together they will address the important issue of the insertion of contemporary elements ...
3-5 September 2013
International World Heritage Expert Meeting on the mainstreaming of the methodological approach related to the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape in the Operational Guidelines, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 3-5 September 2013.
Following Decision 36 COM 13.II of the World Heritage Committee (St Petersburg, 2012) and within the wider framework of the Revisions to the Operational ...
15-30 July 2013
To promote quality research in the areas of Architecture, Planning and Design, the School of Planning and Architecture, Bhopal, publishes an international journal “SPANDREL”- Journal of SPA: New Dimensions in Research of Environments for Living. The Journal is intended as a medium of communication and discussion of contemporary issues in Architecture, Planning, Design and allied disciplines. ...
27-29 May 2013
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the UNESCO Office for the Maghreb (Rabat) and the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco, with the support of the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH), are organizing a meeting which will focus on the issue of preservation of the commonly called heritage of "architectural and urban modernities" in the Arab world. This meeting will bring ...
23-25 April 2013
A workshop on the application of the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape, organized by the World Heritage Centre in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture of Bahrain and funded by the Arab Regional Centre for World Heritage (ARC-WH), will bring together the stakeholders involved in the development of the city of Muharraq and a group of international experts on the themes which ...
7-8 March 2013
In a world where cities are ever increasing in size and significance, how can urban archaeology, heritage and development be reconciled?
This international conference on ‘The Conservation of Historic Urban Landscapes and Sustainable Development’ brings together heritage practitioners, urban planners, architects, cultural policy experts and archaeologists in order to explore this very ...
17 December 2012
UNESCO's Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape : a new approach to urban conservation?
In November 2011, UNESCO adopted a new standard-setting text called the Recommendation on the Historic Urban Landscape. It is the first normative text by UNESCO dedicated specifically to cities, and UNESCO's first normative text on conservation in 35 years.
The goal of this instrument is to ...
26-27 October 2012
The meeting on the Historic Urban Landscape Action Plan will be organized by the World Heritage Centre, Durham University's Institute of Medieval and Renaissance Studies and the Centre for the Ethics of Cultural Heritage (CECH) in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) and hosted by the Durham World Heritage site authorities. The meeting is scheduled for 26 and 27 October ...
12-14 October 2012
Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention and the 20th anniversary of the Declaration on Cultural Landscapes, this conference will bring together scholars and professionals from around the world to address the debates over the interrelationship between culture and nature, the challenges of preservation within historic urban landscapes, the development of an integrated ...
12-14 September 2012
The Regional Secretariat of the Organization of World Heritage Cities (OWHC) for North Western Europe, based in Regensburg, Germany, invites World Heritage Cities' site-managers to the Regional Conference of the OWHC Region of North Western Europe that will take place in Beemster, Netherlands, from 12 to 14 September 2012.
The 40th anniversary of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention will be ...
31 May 2012 - 1 June 2012
International colloquium on the challenges and opportunities for the conservation and management of World Heritage cities.
For more information: http://www.wh2012.be/Default.aspx?tabid=15268&language=en-US
22-25 November 2011
The World Congress of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, held every two years, brings together politicians and professionals who are committed to the preservation of historic cities, particularly those inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. Since the first meeting in 1991, this event has enabled participants to discuss topics of common interest, to share experiences, and to learn ...
31 March 2011 - 2 May 2011
As a complement to the current global debate on the preservation of historic urban landscape, Stadsherstel is organizing an international forum entitled Urban Heritage Inc., Public-private partnership meets heritage preservation.
The forum will take place from 31 March until 2 April 2011 in the De Duif Church in Amsterdam. The second day of the forum, Friday 1 April, is an open day for the ...
18-28 February 2011
As a complement to the current global debate on the preservation of historic urban landscape, Stadsherstel is organizing an international forum entitled Urban Heritage Inc., Public-private partnership meets heritage preservation.
The forum will take place from 31 March until 2 April 2011 in the De Duif Church in Amsterdam. The second day of the forum, Friday 1 April, is an open day for the ...
30 November 2009 - 3 December 2009
More than half of the Earth's population now lives in an urban area, and over the past three decades, due to the sharp increase in the world's urban population, historic cities have become subject to new threats.
In order to address conservation and planning issues of historic cities, the Recommendation on Historic Urban Landscapes is being prepared for possible adoption at the 36th ...
10 March 2009 - 30 April 2009
This prize is awarded every second year by the Organization of World Heritage Cities to a city that is a member of the OWHC and that has distinguished itself by its achievements in the conservation, enhancement or management of property inscribed on the World Heritage List, and located on its territory.
EligibilityA city that is a member in good standing of the Organization of World Heritage ...
23-25 November 2008
International Conference on the Historic Urban Landscape and its management in Budapest, Hungary (Collegium Budapest, 23-25 November 2008)
The goal of the conference is to:
1. contribute to the global reflection on the concept of historic urban landscape in an interdisciplinary perspective and on its relevance for the management of historic cities;
2. share the perspectives and to compare ...
12-14 November 2007
UNESCO has launched an initiative for the safeguarding of Historic Urban Landscapes as a follow-up to the Vienna Conference on "World Heritage and Contemporary Architecture - Managing the Historic Urban Landscape", which took place in May 2005 in Austria. The outcome of this conference, the so-called "Vienna Memorandum", formed the basis for the adoption of a ‘Declaration on the Conservation ...
21-22 June 2007
An international congress on "Maintenance, Repair and Rehabilitation of Property" will be held at the Hofburg Congress Centre in Vienna on 21 and 22 June 2007.
The congress will not address the issue of monuments and their restoration. Rather, it will bring together decision-makers, architects, planners, craftspeople, building industry experts and estate agents with the aim of highlighting ...
30 May 2007 - 1 June 2007
4th ICOMOS Regional Asia Pacific Meeting will be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, at the invitation of ICOMOS Korea with support by the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This one will address the larger urban settlement with the theme "Heritage and Metropolis in Asia and the Pacific". It will provide another opportunity to examine the follow ...
29 January 2007 - 2 February 2007
From 29 January to 2 February 2007 the city of St Petersburg, Russian Federation, will host a seminar on "Scientific and Technical Challenges for the Management and Conservation of Historic Centres of Towns inscribed on the World Heritage List" for the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The seminar is being prepared jointly by the Russian World Heritage National Committee, the Russian ...
7-8 December 2006
Theme I "Importance and competitiveness of new development"
Theme II "Preservation and continuity of urban landscape"
Theme III "Community involvement in city planning process"
12-14 May 2005
Managing the Historic Urban Landscape
The UNESCO World Heritage Centre and the City of Vienna are pleased to announce this international conference, co-organized by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and the Austrian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, which will take place in the Vienna City Hall from 12 to 14 May 2005.
About 200 historic cities and urban ...