With four year's warning unheeded, Germany's heritage site in Dresden was deleted on June 25 from UNESCO's (Unite Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's) World Heritage List.
A general view shows a vintage steamboat sailing down the Elbe river, where the planned 'Waldschloesschenbruecke' bridge should cross the river, in front of the historic city centre of the eastern German city of Dresden August 27, 2006. With four year's warning unheeded, Germany's heritage site in Dresden was deleted on Thursday from UNESCO's (Unite Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's) World Heritage List.
The ongoing 33rd Session of the World Heritage Committee voted to delete Germany's Dresden Elbe Valley from the List due to the building of a four-lane bridge in the heart of the cultural landscape which meant that the property failed to keep its "outstanding universal value as inscribed."
"Every time we fail to preserve a site, we share the pain of the State Party," declared Mara Jess San Segundo, the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Spain to UNESCO who is chairing the session in Seville.
"We feel the sense of responsibility and sadness" in making the decision, she added at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.
Francesco Bandarin, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, blamed Dresden's removal on the "unsuccessful interchange" between UNESCO experts and Germany, in particular the unwillingness on the part of the German authorities to listen to UNESCO's warnings in the past four years.
"They have kept the same route as from the beginning," and demonstrated no capacity to listen and change, said Bandarin, who admitted nonetheless it had been a very difficult decision to make.
