Argentina - Australia - Denmark - Workers’ Assembly Halls

Workers’ Assembly Halls is a proposed transnational serial nomination that is representative of the global phenomenon of mass organisation of workers by the international democratic labour movement in the context of industrialisation during the formative period of working-class internationalism from 1850 to 1950. Purpose-built and established by international democratic labour movements from the 1850s onwards, the tradition continues with new workers’ assembly halls still being built today. They are located in proximity to industrial zones or directly related to developing industrial areas and were always managed by international democratic labour movements. They were self-confident in architectural expression and intended to stand out in the surroundings, thereby signalling a permanent presence of the international democratic labour movement. The buildings continue to function as meeting places with public access, either in direct continuation or in clear relation to their original purpose. They are in a good state of conservation and still retain the layout and floorplan of their original function. This includes meeting rooms of various sizes, service areas, offices, often kitchens and sometimes apartments, printing press, cooperative businesses, or other sources of income. Decorations and architectural features intended to motivate a sense of community are also preserved.

Denmark - Seaweed Houses and Sea-salt Huts, Laesoe Island

 

Seaweed houses:

1. Museumsgården, Museumsvej 3. N57 15 47 – E11 01 57

2. Hedvigs Hus, Linievejen 36. N57 18 27 – E11 07 32

Sea-salt production cultural landscape:

3. Rønnerne (nature- and sites and monuments-protected areas, approx. defined by the points:) N57 13 33 – E11 00 33, N57 14 16 - E11 03 27 and N57 11 48 E11 07 43 Additional component parts (Seaweed houses) to be confirmed

Laesoe Island (Danish: Læsø) is a small lowland archipelago situated in the northern part of Kattegat, the strait which separates the North Sea and the Baltic Sea between Denmark and Sweden. The property is a serial nomination which demonstrates exceptional ingenuity and creativity from the early Middle Ages to the mid-twentieth century in the exploitation of the marine resources of salt and seaweed (eelgrass, Zostera marina) by a small and relatively isolated island community.

The property broadly comprises a large coastal heath and wetland landscape of medieval sea-salt production in the south of the island, together with two clusters of ‘seaweed’ houses in the east and northeast of the island, and an area of sandflats and sea in the southeast associated with the source of eelgrass used in roofing.

Cultural landscape of large-scale medieval (12th-16th century) sea-salt production

Shallow and patchy concentrations of saline groundwater (2-17%) occurred in superficial postglacial marine sands and gravels resting on impermeable clay beneath coastal sandflats, salt marshes and meadows in the south of Laesoe. Archaeological sites of around 1,700 sea-salt production huts (salt cotes) are recorded in the component part. Such sites typically comprise stone furnaces, embankments and mounds distributed in distinctive landscape patterns that represents successive exploitation near a retreating coastline. This corresponds to successive raised and stranded palaeo-shorelines that indicate the extent and direction of coastal change caused by centuries of natural marine regression related to post-glacial rebound. So many salt cotes, and in unique arrangement, is a rare manifestation of open-pan salt production once common in medieval Europe where, and when, salt was essential for preserving food, notably fish (especially herring from the Baltic and North seas), and in other aspects of life and commerce.

Denmark - Møns Klint

"The property of Møns Klint is a 6 km coastal chalk cliff with exceptional geological and scenic qualities. The white cliffs consist of Cretaceous chalk that has been bulldozed up into one of the world’s largest glaciotectonic complexes by glaciers during the last ice age, c. 17.000 years ago. The coastal position with active wave erosion has exposed a spectacular cross-section, with an outstanding exposure of more than 9000 meters, and a structural relief extending 200 meters from the base to the top of the complex. The steep white cliffs, more than 120 meters above sea level, form jagged towers of whiteness above turquoise waters, stony black flint beaches, and crowned by green beech tree forests on top.

It represents the most spectacular example of glaciotectonic mountain building and illustrates the profound effect of lowland glaciers on Pleistocene landscapes. This unique pocket sized ‘mountain’ is comprised of well- exposed folded and stacked beds of chalk and glaciogenic sediments, and the processes and architecture of this type of glaciotectonic mountain building, closely resembles that of the more well-known process of plate- tectonic orogenic mountain building.


Source: UNESCO WHS Tentative List

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Denmark - The Maritime Heritage of Dragør Old Town and Harbour - A ‘skipper-town’ from the era of the great tall ships in the 18th and 19th centuries

It was in the 18th and 19th centuries that large and fast sailing ships made their mark on world history by forging lasting and stable links within Europe and with other continents as well. The sailing-ship traffic led to a blossoming of trade and to the growth of harbours and of seafaring communities; a maritime culture came into existence. Dragør is a unique instance of a well-preserved built environment owing its origins to a maritime community of this period, when Denmark was among the leading seafaring nations in Europe.