UNESCO World Heritage Site

Dresden Elbe Valley (delisted in 2009)
Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List
View over the river meadows and Dresden
Country	Germany
Type	Cultural
Criteria	ii, iii, iv, v
Reference	1156
UNESCO region	Europe and North America
Inscription history
Inscription	2004–2009 (28th Session)
Endangered	2006–2009

The Dresden Elbe Valley is a former World Heritage Site in Dresden, Germany. The valley, extending for some 20 kilometres and passing through the Dresden Basin and the city of Dresden, is one of two cultural landscapes along the Central European river Elbe. The value of this landscape lies in the fact that it includes the urban area as well as natural river banks and slopes.

Map of the area in Dresden

"Filmnächte" on the Dresden Elbe Valley with skyline of the city in the background

Points of interest of the Elbe Valley include Pillnitz with its castle and old village as well as the village of Loschwitz with Schloss Albrechtsberg, works of engineering such as the Blue Wonder bridge, the Standseilbahn Dresden and the Schwebebahn Dresden, and the historic center with the buildings of Brühl's Terrace, Semperoper and Katholische Hofkirche (the Roman Catholic Church of the former court). Parts of the area such as Blasewitz are historic suburbs of the city, while there are also industrial districts.

Plans to build the four-lane Waldschlösschen Bridge across the valley proved controversial. In 2006, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee placed the Dresden Elbe Valley on its list of World Heritage in Danger and threatened to remove it from the World Heritage List. According to the Committee's official website, the committee determined that "plans to build a bridge across the Elbe would have such a serious impact on the integrity of property's landscape that it may no longer deserve to be on the World Heritage List," and therefore decided to place the Dresden Elbe Valley on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger "with a view to also consider, in a prudent manner, delisting the site from the World Heritage List in 2007 if the plans were carried through."^[1]

Though the bridge was approved in a referendum in 2005, the city council decided on 20 July 2006 to stop the invitation to bid on contracts to build the bridge. However, after several court decisions the city was forced to begin building the bridge at the end of 2007 until further court hearings could be held in 2008.

In July 2008, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee decided to keep the Dresden Elbe Valley on the World Heritage List in the hope that the construction would be stopped and the integrity of the landscape restored. If not, the property would be deleted from the World Heritage List in 2009.^[2]

In June 2009 at a UNESCO meeting in Seville, the World Heritage Committee decided in a 14 to 5 vote with two abstentions to revoke the Dresden Elbe Valley's status as a World Heritage Site.^[3][4]

See also [edit]

• Former UNESCO World Heritage Sites
• List of regions of Saxony

References [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Dresden Elbe Valley

• Dresden Elbe Valley / Official UNESCO Website

v t e World Heritage Sites in Germany Northern Fagus Factory in Alfeld Berlin Modernism Housing Estates Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin Bremen: Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace Mines of Rammelsberg, Historic Town of Goslar and Upper Harz Water Management System Hildesheim: St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church Hanseatic City of Lübeck Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar The Wadden Sea1 Ancient Beech Forests2 Central Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz Dresden Elbe Valley (delisted in 2009) Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg Muskauer Park / Park Mużakowski3 Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg Wartburg Castle Classical Weimar Western Aachen Cathedral Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl Cologne Cathedral Messel Pit Fossil Site Upper Middle Rhine Valley Speyer Cathedral Trier: Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady Völklingen Ironworks Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen Southern Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch Town of Bamberg Frontiers of the Roman Empire:4 Upper Germanic & Rhaetian Limes Maulbronn Monastery Complex Margravial Opera House Bayreuth Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof Monastic Island of Reichenau Pilgrimage Church of Wies Würzburg Residence with the Court Gardens and Residence Square Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps5 1 Shared with the Netherlands 2 Shared with Slovakia and Ukraine 3 Shared with Poland 4 Shared with the United Kingdom 5 Shared with Austria, France, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland

Coordinates: 51°02′59″N 13°48′48″E / 51.04972°N 13.81333°E / 51.04972; 13.81333