Agree! Nothing positive has come from open pit brown coal mines. I cannot imagine this as WHS. Germans are not very good in finding new hot WHS themes ;-))

There is something similar and bigger in Czechia:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordb%C3%B6hmisches_Becken
The brown coal mining has been not only an environmental but also a cultural disaster during the communist times. The medieval core of town Most (Brüx in German), comparable to Český Krumlov, was completely eliminated from the surface of mother Earth. The sad monument is also the castle Jezeří nearby...

The hot issue of nowadays and the source of political conflicts is the Turów coal mine in Poland, very close to Czech and German borders.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tur%C3%B3w_Coal_Mine

Also Agree.
But so far it is not even clear whether this idea will be nominated by the federal state (Saxony and/or Brandenburg). And there is not much time left. The deadline for proposals from the federal states is the end of October. In the second step, all candidates will be evaluated by a commission of experts. The new tentative list will not be finalised until 2023.

There are interesting proposals, but only a few:
Olympic Park in Munich
Karl-Marx-Allee and Hansaviertel in Berlin
TV tower Stuttgart

Spain

Numancia

Nuevo respaldo a candidatura de Numancia ante Unesco

Numancia is a former TWHS, but is trying again for inscription, even though it isn't a TWHS anymore?

the whole city then :)

Banks of the Seine could easily be split up in three to four worthy WHS on their own.

But I agree Paris definitely has room for some more WHS. Even Brussels has four separate ones.

It's best to avoid the split of the WHS in the same city, no?
Paris has anyway 3 WHS if you take into account the Banks, Le Corbusier architecture and the Tour St Jacques (chemins de St Jacques de Compostelle). We can add also Versailles even if it's not really in the city...So Paris is already well provided :) If you would like to include Haussmannian architecture, the zinc roofs of Paris or whatever, we should extend the limits of the property including the whole city like we can say "the old town"...it would be easier :)

I think that if we were to divide Paris, the indisputable monuments would be the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and Le Louvre. But if we maintain the banks of the Seine as a whole, we should add the Arc de Triomphe with the prospect of the Champs-Elysées. This is worth at least as much as the extension of Andrassy Avenue in Budapest! Like Rome, it is a bit unfair that this is just one site, whereas cities like London without architectural harmony can have plenty of sites. The Butte Montmartre seems to me to be a good idea, but we could also think of the Père-Lachaise cemetery or register underground Paris (catacombs, sewers, metro).

Liverpool's fab four: Three Graces and St George's Hall
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/sep/23/we-dont-need-unesco-listing-says-new-liverpool-heritage-chief

I would like to see a similar approach for Dresden.

I didn't mean it had to be split up. Just wanted to say that in other cities, components are nominated seperately, like for London and Brussels, and it ups the count for those cities.

But Banks of the Seine could easily be four top sites with the Eiffel Tower-Champs de Mars, the Louvre, Hôtel des Invalides and the Ile de la Cité with Notre-Dame and Pont-Neuf.


Indeed, but Corbusier and Compostelle are serial nominations, while Brussels has three out of four WHS that are not serial. And I don't put Versailles under the Paris WHS.


Absolutely, the Champs-Elysees axis from the Tuileries over the Arc de Triomphe is definitely WHS material. Not only because of the Arc itself, but also because of the axis idea that is also present in other cities, but is magnificently developed here.

Other Parisian potential WHS could be Montmartre indeed, and the Parisian cemeteries (Père-Lachaise, Montmartre, Montparnasse). Maybe also Parisian squares: Place des Vosges, PLace de la Concorde, Place Vendôme.

Pffff, the disdain is still palpable in this response from Liverpool, calling it a "'naive' removal of city's world heritage status". Surely, they are not at fault.

Liverpool's new heritage chief has insisted the city does "not need" Unesco world heritage status

"We don't need it. We'd love it. It's a reputation for them; it's a reputation for us.

"It's up to Unesco if they want us to be a red line through their list of beautiful sites across the world. Personally I would look to arbitrate; they should come back and take our offer and reduce [the size of the site] down,"

Seems they're a bit full of themselves.

If you are in a hole, don't keep digging.


With capital cities you regularly get this problem. We can have an endless list for the metropolitan areas of Berlin, London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Moscow, Seoul, Beijing, Prag, New York City, Rome, ... I am not sure adding a new inscription each and every time makes sense.

My personal preference would be to use serial sites for this, serial in the sense that Paris is the site and then each location or area adds to the OUV as a catalogue.

For Paris. Hard to find anything else but areas.

For Berlin.
Areas: Museumsinsel, Karl Marx Allee
Site: AEG Turbinenhalle, Tempelhof, Brandenburger Tor, Bernau Gewerkschaftsschule, Nationalgalerie, Mauer Memorial

That's a good idea, because it works both ways. The cities derives its OUV from the sites, but the sites also derive their OUV from their urban situation.

https://www.newswire.lk/2021/09/26/sri-lanka-to-apply-for-world-heritage-status-for-another-archaeological-site/
"The Director-General further stated that the required documents to obtain World Heritage status for the Ritigala Archaeological site are now being prepared, and they will be submitted to the relevant authorities very soon. "

https://akipress.com/news:662975:Ancient_town_of_Karon_may_be_inscribed_on_World_Heritage_List/

Sounds intriguing, "the Machu Picchu of Tajikistan": https://theculturetrip.com/asia/tajikistan/articles/exploring-the-lost-city-of-qaron-what-the-machu-picchu-of-tajikistan-means-for-tourism/

I always feel I am slightly alone in this, but I have always been underwhelemed by planned public spaces in Paris.

The big blank squares are mostly disconnected from people by busy roads. I remember being so excited to see Place de la Concord, then when I got there it was just a road with an obalisk and fountain as a central reservation.

I'm really not a fan of Hausmann's Paris, but I guess it has generated plenty of copies so perhaps worthy of OUV. Without his work you wouldn't have all the "revolution proofed" capitals of autocracies and dictatorships around the world today, perhaps it can give us a grand title Hausmann's Paris, a model city for limiting revolutions from Minsk to Naypyitaw :)

Paris is a lovely city inspite of that planning. Sorry Jurre that wasn't directed at you, just me venting on something I never really understood the love for.