This is the second time in years that Germany’s Jewish heritage has been added to the list.
Among the buildings included in the new designation are the Old Synagogue of Erfurt, a thirteenth-century stone construction depicting Jewish family life in medieval times, and a classic ritual bath known as a mikveh.
The resolution was adopted Sunday at an assembly of the United Nations World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Erfurt’s Jewish heritage sites have a long history, but until recently they were largely forgotten.
After fourteenth-century pogroms drove much of Erfurt’s Jewish population out of the city, the Old Synagogue was used as a warehouse, then as a place to eat and a ballroom.
Its former importance was not rediscovered and established until 1988.
The ritual bath has been filled and used as a cellar for centuries and was only identified by its ancient and cultural context in 2007.
“Erfurt’s Jewish monuments have been forgotten for centuries,” said Maria Boehmer, chair of the German Commission for UNESCO.
“His rediscovery is a gift. “
UNESCO, in Paris, introduced the World Heritage List in 1978.
It includes a wide range of more than 1,000 sites – from the Acropolis of Athens to the Great Wall of China – proposed by their respective nations.
Sunday’s news comes two years after UNESCO discovered the first Jewish cultural heritage sites in Germany.
That year it added to its list of World Heritage sites the so-called ShUM Jewish sites in the riverside cities of Mainz, Worms and Speyer.
UNESCO’s choice to also include Erfurt “contributes decisively to the visibility and preservation of the non-unusual roots of Jews and Christians in Germany and Europe for the future,” Kerstin Puerschel, Germany’s ambassador to UNESCO, said in a statement.
The inclusion of Erfurt brings the total number of World Heritage sites in Germany to 52.
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