Hungary - Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape

The tentative World Heritage site, located on the north coast of Lake Balaton, includes the areas, under nature protection and cultural heritage protection, of the Tihany Peninsula, the Tapolca Basin, the Káli Basin and Lake Hévíz, as well as the areas, under protection of historic buildings and monuments, of the Festetics Castle of Keszthely, its castle park and the historic building complex of the Georgikon Farm and the historic quarter of Balatonfüred. The common, definitive foundation of these areas of the Balaton Uplands Cultural Landscape, carrying these outstanding values, is their geo-historical past, whose processes, including marine and lake sedimentation, volcanic activity have created manifold geological and rock structures on which a harmonious landscape emerged. People, who appeared in the area in ancient times, have used and formed this landscape up to our days by adjusting to the natural characteristics (agriculture, fishery, viticulture, basalt mining, (curative) thermal bathing), which, in the wake of the cultural and communication interactions of the peoples, who havelived here – including the Celts, the Romans and the Magyars – have become a cultural landscape of outstanding importance.