UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES IN CAMPANIA

 

Heritage is our legacy from the past, what we live with today, and what we pass on to future generations. Our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. Places as unique and diverse as the wilds of East Africa’s Serengeti, the Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Baroque cathedrals of Latin America make up our world’s heritage.

Italy dominates the World Heritage Sites list, according to UNESCO, the United Nations' cultural branch. It has 43 locations listed considered as places of outstanding cultural and historical value. This is more than any other European country and practically all major styles of Western architecture can be found in Italy.

 

Longobards in Italy, Places of the Power. The Santa Sofia Complex, Benevento

DATE OF LISTING: 2011

 

 

 

 

The Longobards in Italy, Places of Power, 568 - 774 A.D. comprises seven groups of important buildings (including fortresses, churches, and monasteries) throughout the Italian Peninsula. They testify to the high achievement of the Lombards, who migrated from northern Europe and developed their own specific culture in Italy where they ruled over vast territories in the 6th to 8th centuries. The Lombards synthesis of architectural styles marked the transition from Antiquity to the European Middle Ages, drawing on the heritage of Ancient Rome, Christian spirituality, Byzantine influence and Germanic northern Europe. The serial property testifies to the Lombards' major role in the spiritual and cultural development of Medieval European Christianity, notably by bolstering the monastic movement.

 

Historic Centre of Naples

DATE OF LISTING: 1995

Naples is one of the most ancient cities in Europe, whose contemporary urban fabric preserves the elements of its long and eventful history. Its street pattern, its wealth of historic buildings from many periods, and its setting on the Bay of Naples give it an outstanding universal value without parallel, and one that has had a profound influence in many parts of Europe and beyond.

Much of the significance of Naples is due to its urban fabric, which represents twenty-five centuries of growth. Little survives above ground of the Greek town, but important archaeological discoveries have been made in excavations since the end of the Second World War. Three sections of the original town walls of this period are visible in the north-west. The surviving Roman remains are more substantial, notably the large theatre, cemeteries and catacombs. The street layout in the earliest parts of the city owes much to its classical origins.

 

18th-Century Royal Palace at Caserta with the Park, the Aqueduct of Vanvitelli and the San Leucio Complex

DATE OF LISTING: 1997

 

 

 

 

The monumental complex at Caserta, while cast in the same mould as other 18th-century royal establishments, is exceptional for the broad sweep of its design, incorporating an imposing palace and park, and also much of the surrounding natural landscape and an ambitious new town laid out according to urban planning precepts of its time. The industrial complex of the Belvedere, designed to produce silk, is also of outstanding interest because of the idealistic principles underlying its original conception and management.
In 1734 Charles III, son of Philip V, became King of Naples, a self-governing kingdom that was no longer part of the Spanish realm. He decided in 1750 to build a new royal palace, to rival the Palace of Versailles. It was designed to be the centre of a new town that would compete with leading European cities. He employed architect Luigi Vanvitelli, then engaged in the restoration o St Peter's in Rome. The Bosco di San Silvestro, on the two hills of Montemaiuolo and Montebriano, was covered with vineyards and orchards when in 1773 Ferdinand IV decided to enclose it and create a hunting park.

 

Archaeological Areas of Pompei, Herculaneum and Torre Annunziata

DATE OF LISTING: 1997

 

 

 

 

The impressive remains of the towns of Pompei and Herculaneum and their associated villas, buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, provide a complete and vivid picture of society and daily life at a specific moment in the past that is without parallel anywhere in the world.
Pompei was an Opician foundation of the 6th century BC, and Dionysus of Halicarnassus maintained that Herculaneum (Ercolano) was founded by Hercules. Both underwent changes of overlord in the centuries that followed: Oscans, Samnites, Greeks, Etruscans, and finally Romans in 89 BC, following the Social War. Pompei was elevated to the status of Colonia Cornelia Venera Pompeiana in 89 BC, whereas Herculaneum was accorded the lower rank of municipium. The lives of both towns came to an abrupt and catastrophic end on 24 August, AD 79. The area had been shaken by an earthquake shortly before and reconstruction work was still in progress when Vesuvius erupted with tremendous violence. Pompei was buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and stone and Herculaneum disappeared under a pyroclastic flow of volcanic mud.

 

Costiera Amalfitana

DATE OF LISTING: 1997

 

 

 

 

Costiera Amalfitana is an outstanding example of a Mediterranean landscape, with exceptional cultural and natural scenic values resulting from its dramatic topography and historical evolution. The area covers 11,231 ha in 15 [16?]communes in the Province of Salerno. Its natural boundary is the southern slope of the peninsula formed by the Lattari hills which, stretching from the Picentini hills to the Tyrrhenian Sea, separate the Gulf of Naples from the Gulf of Salerno. It consists of four main stretches of coast (Amalfi, Atrani, Reginna Maior, Reginna Minor) with some minor ones (Positano, Praiano, Certaria, Hercle), with the mountain villages of Scala, Tramonti and Ravello and hamlets of Conca and Furore behind and above them.

Palaeolithic and Mesolithic materials have been found at Positano, and the area was favoured by the Romans, judging from the villas of Positano, Minori and Gallo Lungo. However, it was not intensively settled until the early Middle Ages, when the Gothic War made it a place of refuge. Amalfi was founded in the 4th century AD. A new Roman colony in nearby Lucania came under barbarian attack and the inhabitants moved to the fertile and well-watered hilly area around modern Scala.

 

Cilento and Vallo di Diano National Park with the Archeological Sites of Paestum and Velia, and the Certosa di Padula

DATE OF LISTING: 1997

 

 

 

 

During the prehistoric period, and again in the Middle Ages, the Cilento region served as a key route for cultural, political and commercial communications in an exceptional manner, using the crests of the mountain chains running east-west and thereby creating a cultural landscape of outstanding significance and quality between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea.
Cilento National Park is essentially a mountainous region cut by several river valleys sloping down to the Tyrrhenian Sea. The earliest human occupation identified in this region dates back over 250,000 years, when Homo erectus was living in caves along the coast. Homo sapiens sapiens replaced his Neanderthal cousin during the Upper Palaeolithic period and established seasonal camps during this and the subsequent Mesolithic period. Neolithic settlements have been discovered in a number of places across the area of the park.