UNESCO postcard and general discussion

[helent]

I wanted to create a space for some general UNESCO discussion, now that there is no longer a sub-forum. I hope that is the right place.

This topic is for discussion, not for starting swaps, etc. Use this topic to ask questions about sites or the list, get help identifying what a card shows, talk about places you have visited, etc.

Swaps can be started in the trade section.

For starters, I was wondering about the Tentative List. The list of inscribed properties is easy to find and can be downloaded in multiple formats. But I can’t find a combined list of the tentative sites. Does anyone know how to find this? On the tentative list page you can click on each country, so for example, if I look at Australia, I can see three properties, one of which is new to me. But I’m certainly not going to do this for every country. @SLLiew is our expert, so maybe they can help.

[SLLiew]

Hahaha… I am not expert - thanks for your kind words.

The tentative list is quite long and for some countries - they listed like from 20 to over 60 tentative list sites - many of the these lesser known sites unlikely to be nominated if the UNESCO WHS rule is for 1 site inscribed per year for each country to prevent domination.

Nonetheless, the list of tentative list is a great way to learn of each country.

In my blog of tentative list, I have just copied the list from each country one by one. The list is constantly updated and so my list may not be current for some countries.

http://worldheritagetentativelist.blogspot.com/

My other tentative list in postcrossing forum has not been updated for awhile.

Certain major countries like Germany, Japan, South Korea, USA has fewer tentative list but very often every year, get a new UNESCO WHS inscription and hence are the countries most worthy to collect postcards of tentative lists as they will have a higher chance of being converted to a UNESCO WHS.

[Geminiscp]

@helent

But I can’t find a combined list of the tentative sites

I doubt if there is one, and if someone has it, if they have it totally updated. The tentative lists change very often. The tentatives are not a “definitive list” like the other list (and even the official list is not definitive, UNESCO can delist the places if they don’t keep some standards/obligations).

The tentative list is something (buildings or not) that the country wants to see listed as a World Heritage place. To be analyzed by the Committee in July, the State of the country must be sure they have acomplished all the requirements to be listed.

Sometimes, when the country sees they have no option to be listed, they take the nomination off, or change it in a different candidature.

Every year the Committee takes some of the candidatures and analyze, if they will be WH or not. If the answer is no, then that place cannot be a candidate anymore (I’m not 100% sure about this, I think I read it somewhere).

So, if you want to collect the tentative lists too, be prepared for a lot of work updating all the countries each year and to “lost” some nominations sometimes.

The official list has had only 2 places delisted so far, btw.

Another interesting fact, for whom wants to search more. Some entries can have hundreds of places “hidden”. For example, the Routes of Santiago de Compostela:

Routes of Santiago de Compostela: Camino Francés and Routes of Northern Spain

You can have a card about the Caminhos in general (there are a lot) but to be accurate and if you want to have all the places inscribed in the list, you should have a card of the hundreds of churches and chappels lost behind the sunset that are part of the Route. It’s a big world, this collection! And it’s the most interesting to do, I advise everyone interested to start soon and to keep the list updated.

[angeleye]

@Geminiscp

The official list has had only 2 places delisted so far, btw.

What do you all do about the delisted sites? Do you keep them in your collection / hope to get a card to add to your collection or ignore the site / remove cards about it from your collection?

Since both sites are still written on the list, only with the remark “delisted” (or are they crossed out?), I treat them in my collection like all the other sites. I only have cards of the German delisted site (Dresden), but they are among my other UNESCO cards.

[Cassiopheia]

@angeleye

What do you all do about the delisted sites? Do you keep them in your collection / hope to get a card to add to your collection or ignore the site / remove cards about it from your collection?

I collect those, too and mark them as delisted in my collection. Like this:

I number the sites chronologically and don’t like if there is a gap

[angeleye]

Yes, I also have the files on my computer numbered in chronological order for each country. So the Dresden cards are right in there

[helent]

Thanks everyone for your responses.

@SLLiew

I have just copied the list from each country one by one

I made myself an initial list this way and was hoping to avoid doing that much work again. And I definitely won’t be going through and comparing lists, so I guess I’ll stick with what I’ve created so far!

@Geminiscp

the Routes of Santiago de Compostela

I think the only way to get all of these ones is to go on the walk(s) yourself and get cards along the way. And that could be a pretty rewarding way to reach the goal!

I think the really hard one is the Frontiers of the Roman Empire - the sites are really scattered and some seem very ‘minor’ from the descriptions - definitely not tourist sites. 414 locations in all

@Cassiopheia

I number the sites chronologically and don’t like if there is a gap

Once you get serious about collecting UNESCO sites, this type of attention to detail is essential!

[helent]

Australia may be putting forward a new UNESCO proposal, for pre-fab buildings shipped to Australia in the colonial era. Apparently, we have more of these surviving than the rest of the world in total, although that seems hard to confirm.

Warning for list completists - there are 100+ buildings in the proposal. Some of these, like the wooden house below, are right in my neighbourhood. This building came from Singapore! I will try to take a stroll there this weekend.

[helent]

And as I was looking for any other stories about this, I discovered another proposal being considered, for Victoria’s Goldfields. This one seems like it has a long way to go before the proposal is made, as it covers a huge area with hundreds of locations. And questions like whether you are only considering the mining sites, or the building boom associated with the gold rush.

The region, covered by the 12 councils, encompasses 40,000 square kilometres, or 17 per cent of the Victorian state.

Hundreds of significant gold mining sites and examples of architecture can be found within this vast area.

[helent]

Australia is going hard with the UNESCO plans at the moment!

Saw in the news today another planned site, Fossil sites in the Flinders Ranges - this one is already onto the Tentative List (added just a couple of weeks ago).

[Mosshumla]

@helent

Saw in the news today another planned site, Fossil sites in the Flinders Ranges - this one is already onto the Tentative List (added just a couple of weeks ago).

Oh, that site looks fascinating! Hope it will eventually make it unto the definitive list.
Please look out for postcards, Helen! (I’m sure you do in any case )

[PasoDoble]

Just this week I read in the German newspaper that Berlin hopes to get two old (1950th) architectural parts of the German capital on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, the Hansaviertel, once in the Western part of town, and Karl-Marx-Allee, once in the GDR part of town.

Karl-Marx-Allee (left), Hansaviertel (right)

[tamara84]

https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5623

A former mine workers house turned into a museum. Located in Tuinwijk - Eisden (Limburg) a former mining colony

[xxxxyyyyzzzz]

Hi
When someone wants UNESCO cards ‘posted at origin’ - does that refer to the same spot? I have some UNESCO cards from my visits around my country in my stash, but I would be posting them as officials from my local postbox. Would that make them no longer interesting to people who like UNESCO cards?

[angeleye]

Usually I would understand that to mean within the same country. What I’m mostly seeing as a request is “from country of origin”, so it should have stamps and postmarks from the country where the UNESCO site is located.

It would be hard to collect cards only sent from the exact location. In most cases, even if there’s a postbox nearby the stamps would still be cancelled in a sorting centre that could be far away. You’d never know where it was originally posted.

[helent]

As angeleye said, most likely this means country of origin.

I have seen people offer cards sent from the site, if there’s a special post office/post mark, or with the postmark of the city where the site it. But it’s a rare thing to happen, definitely not what most people would be expecting.

[MsMoney]

Sad news to England.
Liverpool will lose the WHS status.
More news here: http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2314

[helent]

How sad! It’s such a unique scene.

[helent]

UNESCO has announced five sites so far to join the list (there will be more to come):

• Saudi Arabia, Ḥimā Cultural Area
• Austria / Belgium / Czechia / France / Germany / Italy / United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, The Great Spa Towns of Europe
• France, Cordouan Lighthouse
• Germany, Mathildenhöhe Darmstadt
• Italy, Padua’s fourteenth-century fresco cycles

Now that Bath is part of this site, what does that mean for the existing site City of Bath? I guess that covers a larger area than just the baths.

Ḥimā Cultural Area looks very interesting!

[kotona]

@angeleye

You’d never know where it was originally posted.

The card has been sent from the country of origin if the card and its stamp come from the same country. It is very easy to see. I don’t like f.ex. an Indian Unesco sent with a German stamp. I prefer unwritten Unesco cards in an envelope if they are coming from another country.