UNESCO World Heritage for Belgium

UNESCO World Heritage Sites represent some of the best natural, cultural and historic attractions in world travel. Below are details of the 11 cultural, natural and mixed sites inscribed for Belgium to date (a red World Heritage symbol denotes a site currently regarded as endangered). For more details of these properties, click on the links to the UNESCO website and the photographic galleries of these sites from OurPlace (where available). Also, check out UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage for Belgium below.


1998 - La Grand-Place, Brussels Cultural site
1998 - The Four Lifts on the Canal du Centre and their Environs, La Louvière and Le Roeulx (Hainault) Cultural site
1998 - Flemish Béguinages Cultural site
1999 - Belfries of Belgium and France Cultural site
2000 - Notre-Dame Cathedral in Tournai Cultural site
2000 - Neolithic Flint Mines at Spiennes (Mons) Cultural site
2000 - Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels) Cultural site
2000 - Historic Centre of Brugge Cultural site
2005 - Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex Cultural site
2009 - Stoclet House Cultural site
2012 - Major Mining Sites of Wallonia Cultural site


Intangible Cultural Heritage

Recently UNESCO has begun to document the world's Intangible Cultural Heritage which includes "traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts". The current listings for Belgium are shown below - click on the links for more details.


Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity

2008 - Processional giants and dragons in Belgium and France
2008 - Carnival of Binche
2009 - Procession of the Holy Blood in Bruges
2010 - Houtem Jaarmarkt, annual winter fair and livestock market at Sint-Lievens-Houtem
2010 - Aalst carnival
2010 - Krakelingen and Tonnekensbrand, end-of-winter bread and fire feast at Geraardsbergen
2011 - Leuven age set ritual repertoire
2012 - Falconry, a living human heritage
2012 - Marches of Entre-Sambre-et-Meuse

Programmes, projects and activities for the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage considered to best reflect the principles and objectives of the Convention

2011 - Programme of cultivating ludodiversity: safeguarding traditional games in Flanders