Historical Financial Institutions

World Heritage Sites connected to 'Historical Financial Institutions':

  • Brugge House of the Van der Burse family: in the late 13th century commodity traders in Bruges gathered inside the house of a man called Van der Burse, and in 1309 they institutionalized this until now informal meeting and became the "Bruges Bourse". The idea spread quickly around Flanders and neighbouring counties.
  • Florence The HQ of the Medici Bank 1397-1494. A very significant Bank in European and world financial history. At the Via dell'Arte della Lana were the "bancos" or benches where Florentine bankers carried out their trade and from which the very word "Bank" came.
  • Old City of Jerusalem Knights Templar HQ for its Euro wide financial system. "Since the monks themselves were sworn to poverty, but had the strength of a large and trusted international infrastructure behind them, nobles would occasionally use them as a kind of bank or power of attorney."; link
  • Ping Yao Major banking centre for the whole of China in the 19th and early 20th centuries (held ca. 20 draft banks, among which is the Rishengchang, considered the first draft bank in China's history founded in 1823)
  • Siena Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena S.p.A., the oldest surviving bank since 1472.
  • Vienna Wiener Börse: one of the world's oldest exchanges and was founded in 1771 during the reign of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in order to provide a market for state issued bonds.