Sunday 11 February 2024

The Historic Centre of Odesa

This was my first new UNESCO of the year. Unfortunately it is a place that is at war. I hope this is the year this war ends.


Odesa
This postcard was sent by Maryna

The Historic Center of Odesa, part of the Black Sea port city developed on the site of Khadzhybei, is a densely built-up area, planned according to classicism canons, characterized by two- to four-storey buildings and wide perpendicular streets lined with trees. Historic buildings reflect the rapid economic development of the city in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The site includes theatres, bridges, monuments, religious buildings, schools, private palaces and tenement houses, clubs, hotels, banks, shopping centres, warehouses, stock exchanges and other public and administrative buildings designed by architects and engineers, mostly from Italy in the early years, but also of other nationalities. Eclecticism is the dominant feature of the historic city centre’s architecture. The site bears witness to the city’s highly diverse ethnic and religious communities, representing an outstanding example of intercultural exchanges and the growth of multicultural and multi-ethnic Eastern European cities of the 19th century. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1703/

Thursday 18 January 2024

Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape

New year, hope to receive new postcards! This was the last that I received last year.


Richtersveld
This postcard was sent from India by Sriram

The 160,000 ha Richtersveld Cultural and Botanical Landscape of dramatic mountainous desert in north-western South Africa constitutes a cultural landscape communally owned and managed. This site sustains the semi-nomadic pastoral livelihood of the Nama people, reflecting seasonal patterns that may have persisted for as much as two millennia in southern Africa. It is the only area where the Nama still construct portable rush-mat houses (haru om ) and includes seasonal migrations and grazing grounds, together with stock posts. The pastoralists collect medicinal and other plants and have a strong oral tradition associated with different places and attributes of the landscape. - in: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1265/