A joint bid to add ancient pile dwellings in the alpine region to the Unesco list of World Heritage Sites has advanced to the next stage.
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The International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) has recommended registering the bid on the World Heritage list.
The bid will now be considered by Unesco’s World Heritage at its annual meeting in June.
“With this positive response, the candidacy has been set in motion,” the Federal Culture Office said on Monday.
Overall there are about 1,000 known sites of pile dwellings in the alpine region, including Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland.
Switzerland is leading the bid, submitted by six countries, to register more than 150 stilt houses dating back to between 5,000 and 800 BC.The aim of the campaign is to ensure that the remains are not destroyed in the coming few decades through draining of lake shores or marshes.
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Six countries are submitting a joint application to register more than 150 such stilt houses dating back to between 5,000 and 800 BC. The United Nations culture organisation is due to decide on the project in 2011. “The project is unique for a period so far back in history,” said Claude Frey, president of Palafittes,…
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Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Italy and France have successfully campaigned to have 111 of the most important lakeside pile dwellings in the Alps designated World Heritage sites. Of these, 56 are in Switzerland.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.