City of Potosi Bolivia

In the pre-Hispanic period, Potosí was only a small hamlet perched at an altitude of 4,000 m, in the icy solitude of the Andes. It owes its prosperity to the discovery, between 1542 and 1545, of the New World's biggest silver lodes in the Cerro de Potosí, the mountain south of the city which overlooks it. As a result, Potosí is directly and tangibly associated with an event of outstanding universal significance: the economic change brought about in the 16th century by the flood of Spanish currency resulting from the massive import of precious metals from the New World into Seville.

Continent: South America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)(IV) (VI)

Date of Inscription: 1987

The Imperial City' of Potosi

The 'Imperial City' of Potosí, which it became following the visit of Francisco de Toledo in 1572, exerted lasting influence on the development of architecture and monumental arts in the central region of the Andes by spreading the forms of a Baroque style incorporating Bolivian influence. Growth was extremely rapid: in the new town, where building began under the terms of the Law of the Indies in 1572, there were by the 17th century 160,000 colonists, as well as 13,500 Bolivians who were forced to labour in the mines. Following a period of disorganized exploitation of the native silver lodes, the Cerro de Potosí reached full production capacity after 1580, when a Peruvian-developed mining technique, known as patio, was implemented. In the 16th century, this area was regarded as the world's largest industrial complex in which the extraction of silver ore relied on a series of hydraulic mills.

Potosí is the one example par excellence of a major silver mine in modern times. The city and the region conserve spectacular traces of this activity: the industrial infrastructure comprised 22 lagunas or reservoirs, from which a forced flow of water produce the hydraulic power to activate the 140 ingenios or mills to grind silver ore. The ground ore was then amalgamated with mercury in refractory earthen kilns called huayras or guayras. It was then moulded into bars and stamped with the mark of the Royal Mint. From the mine to the Royal Mint, the whole production chain is conserved, along with dams, aqueducts, milling centres and kilns. Production continued until the 18th century, slowing down only after the country's independence in 1825.

City of Potosi Bolivia

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The site consists of the industrial monuments of the Cerro Rico, where water is provided by an intricate system of aqueducts and artificial lakes; the colonial town with the Casa de la Moneda; the Church of San Lorenzo; several patrician houses; and the barrios mitayos, the areas where the workers lived.

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The Casa de la Moneda (House of the Mint), in the centre of the city close to Republic Square, was constructed between 1753 and 1773. The house today is a numismatic museum. It possesses more than 100 colonial pictures and various archaeological and ethnographic collections. The church of San Francisco was the first church built during the colonial period; it houses the patron of Potosí, El Senor de la Vera Cruz. The church of San Lorenzo was built in 1548; it is an outstanding example of dressed stone in the local Baroque style.

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Noel Kempff Mercado National Park Bolivia

The Kempff Mercado National Park is one of the largest (1,523,000 ha) and most intact parks in the Amazon Basin. With an altitudinal range of 200 m to about 1,000 m, it contains a rich mosaic of habitat types from cerrado savannah and forest to upland evergreen Amazonian forests. The park boasts an evolutionary history dating back over a billion years to the Precambrian. Located on the border with Brazil, the site includes a large section of the Huanchaca Plateau and surrounding lowlands. There are rugged cliffs in the northern, western and southern sides of the plateau, with several valleys and steep slopes in its eastern side. Several rivers have their sources on the plateau and form spectacular waterfalls. The largest river in the area is the Iténez, which marks the border with Brazil, to the north of the park, and the Paraguá River dominates the lowlands to the west.

Continent: South America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Natural

Criterion: (IX)(X)

Date of Inscription: 2000

Kempff Mercado Biogeographic Kingdom

The north-eastern sector of the Santa Cruz Department is part of a transition zone where Amazon forest intergrades with the dry forest and savannah habitats of the Cerrado biogeographic realm. Habitat types of the region can be grouped into five basic units that represent distinct ecosystems: upland evergreen forest; deciduous forest; upland Cerrado savannah; savannah wetlands; and forest wetlands. The humid forests of the park are floristically distinct from the moist forests of western Amazon and the Andean piedmont. These forests are classified in several habitat types still scarcely studied.

An evergreen forest with tall trees is found on deep and well-drained soils, while there is a dwarf forest formation occupying a transition zone with the Cerrado. A peculiar feature of the forest is the lianas, which form a low and very thick canopy. Although trees are also part of the canopy, the lianas proliferate in such a way that they dominate. The Huanchaca Plateau has a rich Cerrado flora that incorporates many species that were thought to have a distribution restricted to central Brazil.

Noel Kempff Mercado National Park Bolivia

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The outstanding habitat diversity of the park favours the existence of a highly diverse fauna and the site is an important repository for many rare mammals of Bolivia. Over 80% of the park's mammal species are found in humid forests. Good populations of tapir, brocket deer and jaguar inhabit the upland humid forests. Long-haired spider monkey has large populations throughout the tall evergreen forests, and black-tailed silvery marmoset and monk are also present.

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The open grassland habitats on the southern portion of the plateau have possibly one of the largest remaining populations of pampas deer. Two other large mammals, maned wolf and marsh deer are found in the seasonally flooded termite savannahs below the plateau.

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Historic Centre of Sao Luis Brazil

The Historic Centre of Sao Luis do Maranhao is an outstanding example of a Portuguese colonial town that adapted successfully to the climatic conditions in equatorial South America and which has preserved its urban fabric, harmoniously integrated with its natural setting, to an exceptional degree. The late 17th-century core of this historic town, founded by the French in 1612 and occupied by the Dutch before coming under Portuguese rule, has preserved the original rectangular street plan in its entirety. Thanks to a period of economic stagnation in the early 20th century, an exceptional number of fine historic buildings have survived, making this an outstanding example of an Iberian colonial town.

Continent: South America

Country: Brazil

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (III)(IV) (V)

Date of Inscription: 1997

Sao Luis Rectangular Grid of Streets

The buildings of the town are disposed on the rectangular grid of streets laid out in the 17th century. The private houses are built round courtyards, and the most outstanding examples have tiled roofs; facades faced with Portuguese azulejos or painted, ornamented cornices; tall, narrow window bays with decorated surrounds; and balconies with forged or cast-iron railings. The floors are dressed stone. Features relating to the tropical climate in which they were built include raised piers and shuttered verandas on the inside. There are some 4,000 buildings within the Historic Centre. They may be classified in three categories.

The sumptuous manor houses were built by the rich middle classes in the 18th century. Common features include dressed stone door and window openings, some embellished with classical decorative elements, triangular pediments, curved balconies, marble facades, and wrought-iron grilles. Inside there are vestibules with marble or river pebble floors. A main staircase provides access to the upper storeys in which the family lived, the ground floor being reserved for housing coaches and services.

Historic Centre of Sao Luis Brazil

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The multistorey houses, sometimes up to four storeys in height, are mostly faced with marble. Balconies run right across the facades, in front of the windows. They have elegant wrought- or cast-iron balustrades.

The third group, that of small houses, is subdivided into 'full dwellings', with a central doorway and a window on either site; 'half dwellings', with a doorway at one end and two windows side-by-side; and simple door and window dwellings. They are either single- or two-storeyed. Despite their modest form, many have facades decorated with azulejos.

In addition to the dwelling houses that make up the greater proportion of the town's stock of historic buildings, there is a number of public buildings from the 19th and early 20th centuries, which are largely in neoclassical style.

The economic stagnation of the earlier part of the 20th century has resulted in the historic urban fabric having been preserved to a remarkable degree. Only two buildings in unexceptionable modern style disturb the overall view.

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Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos Bolivia

Jesuit Missions sent by the Spanish Crown to assure the conquest of the Indias del Cielo, the Jesuit fathers arrived at the Viceroyalty of Peru in 1567 to bring Christianity to the indigenous communities. The first collegial church was founded in 1577 at Potosí, on Bolivian territory; in 1592 a new house was established at Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The Jesuits seemed to have rationalized, in the Chiquito territory, the model of reducciones (settlements of Christianized Indians) which was largely inspired by the ideal city of the humanist philosophers. Between 1696 and 1760, six groups of reducciones were founded in a style that married Roman Catholic architecture with local traditions.

Continent: South America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (IV)(V)

Date of Inscription: 1990

The Architecture of Churches

They defined the urban model: the houses of Indians regularly spaced along the three sides of a rectangular square, with the fourth reserved for the church, the collegial church, two workshops, and the schools, and sometimes also for the Casa de la Misericordia (almshouse), which housed widows and abandoned women. Unlike other Jesuit missions in South America that were abandoned after 1767, the reducciones of the Chiquitos survived the expulsion of the Company of Jesus. The six that remain - San Francisco Javier, Concepción, Santa Ana, San Miguel, San Rafael and San José - make up a living heritage on the former territory of the Chiquitos.

The churches of the Chiquitos Missions of Bolivia are a remarkable example of the adaptation of Christian religious architecture to local conditions and traditions. Long walls defining three interior aisles divided by wooden columns and two exterior galleries, also supported by columns, constitute a very unique type of architecture, distinguished by the special treatment of the wooden columns and banisters. Only San José is an exception, because its stone construction was inspired by a Baroque model. These traditional architectural ensembles, which often enclose remarkable popular art objects, have become vulnerable under the impact of changes that threatened the Chiquitos populations following the agrarian reform of 1953.

Jesuit Missions of the Chiquitos Bolivia

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San Francisco Javier, the westernmost and the earliest, is now a small village whose traditional habitat preserves some characteristics of the domestic architecture of the Jesuits, although the height of 6.25 m established for each house is rarely encountered. The school has survived, as well as the church, the work of Father Martin Schmidt. Concepción, founded in 1709, was not established permanently until 1722. The church, begun in 1725, is also a work of Father Martin Schmidt.

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Santa Ana was founded in 1755 and its church was erected between 1768 and 1831, after the expulsion of the Jesuits. San Miguel was established in 1721. The church, the construction of which began in 1750, was built according to the designs of Father Johann Messner. San Raphael has retained from the Jesuit period only its church, constructed in about 1750 by Father Martin Schmidt. It is distinguished by an outside promenade gallery and a wooden bell tower. San José, founded in 1698, was one of the most interesting reducciones of Chiquito. Four chapels for processions stand at the corners of the square. The religious ensemble was extensively remodelled in the 18th century.

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Historic Centre of the Town of Olinda Brazil

The historical centre of Olinda, which is located several kilometres to the north of the harbour installations, industrial zones and skyscrapers of Recife, still retains the charm of a city museum of the colonial period. Olinda was founded in 1537 by the Portuguese Duarte Coelho Pereira and owed its rapid rise to the cultivation of sugar cane in the region of Pernambuco using slave labour.

Continent: South America

Country: Brazil

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)(IV)

Date of Inscription: 1982

Olinda Old Town

From the 16th century, churches and convents, of which only rare examples such as the Church of São João exist today, were built by religious missions. The Dutch occupied the region from 1630 to 1654 and during the occupation a well-planned town was built where present-day Recife is located. Pernambuco was ably governed by the Dutch and prospered with the production of sugar in the plantations located in the rich alluvial soil along the coast. However, the invaders burned down Olinda, although they created a pacific and developed administration centred in Recife.

Portuguese rule replaced that of the Dutch in Pernambuco in 1654, and Olinda recovered; once again it was an important Brazilian village, as a developed and cultural centre. In the early 18th century a bitter rivalry developed between Olinda, the administrative capital of the Captaincy and the residence of rich aristocratic plantation owners, and Recife, which was the commercial centre, largely inhabited by traders, ship's chandlers and warehouse workers.

Historic Centre of the Town of Olinda Brazil

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Recife continued to prosper, however, while Olinda declined, and in 1827 it was made the capital of the province. In 1817 Pernambuco was the scene of a local armed rebellion against Portuguese rule. It remained for years a hotbed of republicanism and revolutionary agitation, and it was the site of unsuccessful insurrections against Portuguese rule in 1821-22, 1824, 1831 and 1848. Pernambuco became a state of the Brazilian Republic in 1891.

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The essential urban fabric of Olinda dates from the 18th century, although it incorporates some older monuments. Among the more important of the buildings of Olinda are the Episcopal Church, the Jesuit College and Church (now the Church of Graça), the Franciscan, Carmelite, Benedictine and other monasteries and convents, and the Misericórdia, Amparo and São João Batista churches.

The unique quality of the Historic Centre arises from the balance, which has generally been maintained, between the private and public buildings and the gardens of the early land allotment. It is a town of unexpected views: one of the numerous Baroque churches and convents or the numerous passos (chapels and oratories) will appear unexpectedly as one turns a corner. The studied refinements of the decor of these conscious architectural structures contrasts with the charming simplicity of the houses, which are painted in vivid colours or faced with ceramic tiles.

Over recent decades, Olinda - a city of art, much appreciated by artists - has been the object of numerous preservation measures. Outstanding buildings such as the Church of Graça, with the former Jesuit College, the Convent do Carmo and the Episcopal Palace has all been more or less completely restored. The construction of new complexes is regulated by a master plan and the zone of protection was extended in 1979.

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Historic City of Sucre Bolivia

The rich heritage of the historic centre of the Spanish city of Sucre (also known as the city of four names - La Plata, Characas, Ciudad Blanca and Sucre) is an excellent, intact and well-preserved illustration of the architectural blending achieved in Latin America through the assimilation of local traditions and styles imported from Europe. The city of La Plata was founded by Pedro de Anzures, Marqués de Campo Rotondo, in 1538. Its foundation was a result of mining activities overseen by Gonzalo Pizarro, who was interested in exploring the highland eastern region of the Andean Cordillera.

Continent: South America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (IV)

Date of Inscription: 1991

Ancient History of Sucre

In 1559, the Spanish King Felipe II commanded the foundation of the Audiencia de Characas, with its headquarters in the city of La Plata, to administer the eastern territories. The Audiencia held judicial authority and executive powers and presided over the regions of what are now Paraguay, south-eastern Peru, northern Chile and Argentina, and most of Bolivia. The Spanish city was designed on a simple urban plan, like all the cities founded by the Spanish in the regions of America in the 16th century. The mineral wealth of the nearby city of Potosí influenced the economic development of La Plata, which was also a major cultural centre (Universidad de San Francisco, the Royal Academia Carolina, San Isabel de Hungria Seminario), and the seat of the Characas Audiencia, a forerunner of the present Supreme Court.

In 1609 the city became the seat of an archbishopric, and during the 17th century La Plata served as a legal, religious and cultural centre of the Spanish eastern territories. The first call for independence in the Americans took place in the city of La Plata in 1809. In August 1825 independence was declared and a new republic was born under the name of Bolivia. In the same days the name of the city, La Plata, was changed to Sucre in honour of Mariscal António José de Sucre, who fought for independence from Spanish rule.

Historic City of Sucre Bolivia

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The buildings in the city's historic centre are characteristic of 18th-century local architecture, and are similar to those built during the same period in Potosí. More recent buildings (late 18th and early 19th centuries) still have patios, but they are adapted to a neoclassical style brought from metropolitan Spain. The House of Freedom is considered to be the most important historical monument of the country, because it was here that the events that led to the independence of Bolivia took place. It was built in 1621 as part of the Convent of the Jesuits.

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On the other hand, many religious buildings bear witness to the period that marked the beginning of the Spanish city, including the churches built by settlers dating back to the 16th century, such as San Lázaro, San Francisco, Santo Domingo, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, the construction of which began in 1559 and was not completely finished until 250 years later. Its architecture displays Renaissance, Baroque and also 'Mestizo Baroque' features. The church of Santa Barbara is the only church in Renaissance style in Bolivia: its interior structure, of neo-Gothic style, dates from 1887. All the churches of Sucre illustrate the blending of local architectural traditions with styles imported from Europe.

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Historic Town of Ouro Preto Brazil

Historic Town of Ouro Preto is located 513 km north of Rio de Janeiro; Ouro Preto (Black Gold) was the main focal point of the period known as the Golden Age of Brazil. Originally called Vila Rica, this city played a leading role in Brazil's history in the 18th century. It was created by thousands of soldiers of fortune eager to enrich them by exploiting the gold deposits; they were followed by many artists who came to settle and produce works of outstanding quality, such as the São Francisco of Assis church by Antonio Francisco Lisboa (Aleijadinho).

Continent: South America

Country: Brazil

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (I)(III)

Date of Inscription: 1980

Ouro Preto, the old capital of Minas Gerais

Ouro Preto, the old capital of Minas Gerais, owes its origins to the discovery and exploitation of the gold. The creation in 1698 of the Capitania de São Paulo e Minas do Ouro resulted in the earlier mining settlements being transformed into villas (small towns), the second of which was Vila Rica, in 1712. Minas Gerais became an independent Capitania in 1720, with Vila Rica as its capital. The growth of the town was rapid as a result of the rich mineral resources, and it developed its own urban features characteristic of a mining town. In the closing years of the 18th century it became a centre of the movement for the emancipation of Brazil from colonial rule known as Inconfidência Mineira.

A rapid decline in mineral resources and mining resulted in deterioration in the economy of this part of the province. In 1823 its status was changed to that of an imperial town, with the new name of Ouro Preto and this attracted a number of higher education establishments, but with the transfer of the provincial capital in 1897 to Belo Horizonte the fortunes of Ouro Preto declined again. Since the 1930s it has been principally a tourist centre.

Historic Town of Ouro Preto Brazil

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The town was shaped by the grouping together of small settlements (arriais) in a hilly landscape, where the houses, mostly single- or two-storeyed, seem to support one another, forming an irregular urban layout that follows the contours of the landscape. However, the resources derived from mining, coupled with the talents of artists such as Aleijadinho and others, some outstanding architectural and artistic masterpieces are to be found. A 'Mining Baroque' style developed in the second half of the 18th century which successfully fused Brazilian influences with European Baroque and Rococo.

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The Church of Saõ Francisco de Assis is considered to be a masterpiece of Brazilian architecture. Ouro Preto also boasts a number of other fine churches and secular buildings such as the churches of Our Lady of the Pillar, the Rosário dos Homens Pretos, the Virgin of the Conceicao, and the Virgin of Carmel, the House of the Baroness, the chafarizes of the High Da Cruz and Alto of the Heads.

Tiradentes Square is the main point from which all the roads diverge. Around it are situated imposing public and private buildings, such as the old Parliament House (1784), today the Museum of the Inconfidência, and the Palace of the Governors, which has become the School of Mines and Metallurgy. The townscape of Ouro Preto is also noteworthy for its bridges and fountains, all blending into an urban and natural setting of great beauty.

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Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture

The ruins of Tiwanaku bear striking witness to the power of the empire that played a leading role in the development of the Andean pre-Hispanic civilization. The buildings are exceptional examples of the ceremonial and public architecture and art of one of the most important manifestations of the civilizations of the region. Tiwanaku began as a small settlement, in what is known as its 'village period', around 1200 BCE. It was self-sufficient, with a non-irrigated form of farming based on frost-resistant crops, essential at this high altitude, producing tubers such as potatoes, oca and cereals, notably quinoa. In more sheltered locations near Lake Titicaca, maize and peaches were also cultivated. The inhabitants lived in rectangular adobe houses that were linked by paved streets.

Continent: South America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (III)(IV)

Date of Inscription: 2000

Tiwanaku Culture

During the 1st century CE, Tiwanaku expanded rapidly into a small town. This may be attributable to the introduction of copper metallurgy, to the consequent availability of superior tools and implements and to the creation of irrigation systems. The wealthy upper class, which also controlled the profitable trade in wool from the vast herds of domesticated alpaca in the region, provided the finance for the creation of large public buildings in stone and paved roads linking Tiwanaku with other settlements in the region. The marshy tracts on the lakeside, where the climatic conditions were more favourable, were brought into cultivation by the creation of terraced raised fields.

The Tiwanaku Empire probably entered its most powerful phase in the 8th century AD. Many daughter towns or colonies were set up in the vast region under Tiwanaku rule, the most important of which was Wari in Peru, which was to set itself up as a rival to Tiwanaku. The political dominance of Tiwanaku began to decline in the 11th century, and its empire collapsed in the first half of the 12th century

Spiritual and Political Centre of the Tiwanaku Culture Bolivia

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Tiwanaku is located near the southern shores of Lake Titicaca on the Altiplano, at an altitude of 3,850 m. Most of the ancient city, which was largely built from adobe, has been overlaid by the modern town. However, the monumental stone buildings of the ceremonial centre survive in the protected archaeological zones.

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The most imposing monument at Tiwanaku is the temple of Akapana. It is a pyramid originally with seven superimposed platforms with stone retaining walls rising to a height of over 18m. Only the lowest of these and part of one of the intermediate walls survive intact. Investigations have shown that it was originally clad in blue stone and surmounted by a temple, as was customary in Mesoamerican pyramids. It is surrounded by very well-preserved drainage canals. The walls of the small semi-subterranean temple (Templete) are made up of 48 pillars in red sandstone. There are many carved stone heads set into the walls, doubtless symbolizing an earlier practice of exposing the severed heads of defeated enemies in the temple.

To the north of the Akapana is the Kalasasaya, a large rectangular open temple, believed to have been used as an observatory. It is entered by a flight of seven steps in the centre of the eastern wall. The interior contains two carved monoliths and the monumental Gate of the Sun, one of the most important specimens of the art of Tiwanaku. It was made from a single slab of andesite cut to form a large doorway with niches on either side. Above the doorway is an elaborate bas-relief frieze depicting a central deity, standing on a stepped platform, wearing an elaborate head-dress, and holding a staff in each hand. The deity is flanked by rows of anthropomorphic birds and along the bottom of the panel there is a series of human faces. The ensemble has been interpreted as an agricultural calendar.

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Boyana Church Bulgaria

Boyana Church is located on the outskirts of Sofia; Boyana Church consists of three buildings. The Eastern Church was built in the 10th century, and then enlarged at the beginning of the 13th century by Sebastocrator Kaloyan, who ordered a second two storey building to be erected next to it. During the middle Ages the strong Bulgarian fortress of Boyana (Batil) stood on the lower slopes of Mount Vitosha in what is now the Sofia suburb of Boyana. This name is mentioned for the first time in 969. Boyana was one of the 35 fortresses and settlements that formed the fortification systems of the city of Sredets (Sofia). Boyana Church was built within the fortress and is a magnificent example of medieval architecture and monumental art.

Continent: South America

Country: Brazil

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)(III)

Date of Inscription: 1979

Boyana Church transformation and extensions

The church has undergone many transformation and extensions, and thus its present complex volume differs considerably from the original. New buildings have been added to the First (East) Church, architectural transformations have been made, and the decoration has been changed. At present Boyana Church consists of buildings from the 11th, 13th and 19th centuries.

The oldest Boyana Church, the so-called East or First Church, was designed and used as a chapel. It had a typical Greek cross plan with a dome, and a concealed internal cross without free-standing support and without a narthex. It is built entirely of brick. The north and south facades are articulated on the outside with three blind arches, each with the central arch higher than the side ones; the arches are not related to the structure of the building. The brickwork decorations are figural: archivolts with 'wolf's tooth' and concentric rows of bricks above the arches.

Boyana Church Bulgaria

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The plan of the interior is reminiscent of a Greek cross and is scantily lit by long narrow openings (one each on the north and south walls, four on the dome) as well as through one triforium on the apse. The entire interior surface of the walls and dome was covered with murals. Some larger fragments have been preserved in the apse. As the First Church was painted again in the mid-18th century, traces of the original paintings are noticeable only where the upper layer of murals has been destroyed.

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In the 13th century the feudal ruler of the western region of the Second Bulgarian State, Sebastocrator Kaloyan and his wife Desislava, who were closely related to the royal family, commissioned the extension of the church. The builders added a new two-storey building to the western wall of the First Church. The ground floor has direct access from the First Church and was intended as a narthex. It is rectangular, covered with a cylindrical vault. On the inside, the walls are decorated only with two niches on the southern and northern sides respectively, probably for a family tomb. The upstairs floor of Kaloyan's Church has an almost identical architectural composition to the older building, in the shape of a Greek cross, and it was used as a family chapel. It was dedicated to the martyr healer St Panteleimon. Access to the chapel is by an outside staircase along the southern wall. It is possible that the stairs connected the chapel with the house of the nobleman. There are grounds for believing that in the event of danger, the mobile staircase was removed, thus, the upstairs chapel could also be used as a defence tower.

The articulation of the facades is figural as in the First Church. The northern and southern facades have four blind arches each on the level of the second floor. One of the arches on the southern wall is wider and was used as an entrance to the chapel on the second floor. The eastern facade of Kaloyan's Church rises above the roof of the First Church. On the outside its surface is broken by a small semicircular apse. The western, entrance facade is the most representative and has a pronounced monumental character. The new church, extended and renewed by the family of the Sebastocrator, was decorated with paintings and consecrated in 1259.

The Boyana frescoes are an early example of the icon-painting style which later on was adopted in mural painting and as such they mark the beginning of specific features which strongly influenced the Tirnovo artistic school. The icon-style murals that became widespread in the Serbian, Russian and Mount Athos monasteries during the 14th to 16th centuries are closely related to this innovation.

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Fuerte de Samaipata Bolivia

Samaipata bears outstanding witness to the existence in this Andean region of a political culture with highly developed religious traditions, illustrated dramatically in the form of the dominant ceremonial feature of this site, its immense rock sculptures. The site is known to have been occupied and used as a ritual and residential centre by people belonging to the Mojocoyas culture as early as AD 300, and it was at this time that work began on the shaping of this great rock. It was occupied in the 14th century by the Inca, who made it a provincial capital. This is confirmed by the features that have been discovered by excavation - a large central plaza with monumental public buildings around it and terracing of the neighbouring hillsides for agriculture - which are characteristic of this type of Inca settlement. It formed a bulwark against the incursions of the warlike Chiriguanos of the Chaco region in the 1520s.

Continent: Southe America

Country: Bolivia

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (II)(III)

Date of Inscription: 1998

Fuerte de Samaipata

The strategic location of the site, which had attracted the Inca to it, was also recognized by the Spaniards. The silver mines of the Cerro Rico at Potosí began to be worked in 1545 and the colonial settlement of Samaipata had become an important staging post on the highway from Asunción and Santa Cruz to the colonial centres in the High Andes such as La Plata (modern Sucre), Cochabamba and Potosí. With the establishment of the new town of Samaipata in the Valle de la Purificación, the ancient settlement had no further military importance and was abandoned.

The archaeological site of Samaipata consists of two parts: the hill with its many carvings, believed to have been the ceremonial centre of the old town (14th-16th centuries), and the area to the south of the hill, which formed the administrative and residential district. The reddish sandstone hill is divided naturally into a higher part, known as El Mirador, and a lower, where the carvings are located.

Fuerte de Samaipata Bolivia

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The carvings in the western part include two felines on a circular base, the only examples of high-relief carving in the whole site. The remains of a stone wall of the Inca period cut across a number of the carvings, indicating a pre-Inca date. These include two parallel channels, between and alongside them there are smaller channels cut in zigzag patterns, giving rise to the local name for this feature, El Dorso de la Serpiente.

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At the highest point is Coro de los Sacerdotes, which consists of a deeply cut circle with triangular and rectangular niches cut into its walls. Further to the east is a structure which probably represents the head of a feline. Most of the southern face of the rock was originally dominated by a series of at least five temples or sanctuaries, of which only the niches cut into their walls survive. The Casa Colonial is situated on an artificial platform at the foot of the rock. Excavations have revealed evidence of Inca and pre-Inca structures here, and so it is known as the Plaza of the Three Cultures. The house of the colonial period, only the stone lower walls of which survive, is in characteristic Arab-Andalusian style, with a central open courtyard.

Away from the rocky hill, there are a number of isolated small buildings surrounded by perimeter walls, a typical Inca form known as kancha. One of these contains two buildings and another five, arranged in a U-pattern. The main administrative-religious centre of the Inca period is situated on a series of three artificial platforms to the south of the rock. The main feature is an enormous building known as the Kallanka; it is on the lowest platform and faces the ceremonial area on the rock across a spacious plaza.

To the west of the Kallanka and on the second platform is a group of at least twelve large or medium-sized houses, laid out in H-shape, provisionally known as the Akllawasi. These are interpreted as remains of the textiles woven for ritual purposes or exchange by the Virgins of the Sun, whose name akllas is given to this group. On the third platform there is a group of seven Inca houses disposed round an open space on an artificial mound.

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Mountain Wonder Machu Picchu Peru

Mountain Wonder Machu Picchu bears, with Cuzco and the other archaeological sites of the valley of the Urubamba (Ollantautaybo, Runcuracay, Sayacmarca, Phuyupamarca, Huiñay Huayna, Intipucu, etc.) a unique testimony to the Inca civilization. Cuzco and the old villages still retain traces of land occupation from the Inca Empire to preserve, in a more global manner, an archaeological heritage which has become susceptible to the effects of urbanization. Furthermore, Macchu Picchu is an outstanding example of man's interaction with his natural environment.

Continent: South America

Country: Peru

Category: Mixed Heritage

Criterion: (I) (III) (VII) (IX)

Date of Inscription: 1983

Amazing urban creation Machu Picchu

Standing 2,430 m above sea level, in the midst of a tropical mountain forest in an extraordinarily beautiful setting, Machu Picchu was probably the most amazing urban creation of the Inca Empire at its height. Its giant walls, terraces and ramps seem as if they have been cut naturally in the continuous rock escarpments. The natural setting, on the eastern slopes of the Andes, encompasses the upper Amazon basin with its rich diversity of flora and fauna.

Machu Picchu covers 32,500 ha in some of the scenically most attractive mountainous territory of the Peruvian Andes. As the last stronghold of the Incas and of superb architectural and archaeological importance, Machu Picchu is one of the most important cultural sites in Latin America; the stonework of the site remains as one of the world's great examples of the use of a natural raw material to provide outstanding architecture which is totally appropriate to the surroundings. The surrounding valleys have been cultivated continuously for well over 1,000 years, providing one of the world's greatest examples of a productive man-land relationship; the people living around Machu Picchu continue a way of life which closely resembles that of their Inca ancestors, being based on potatoes, maize and llamas.

Mountain Wonder Machu Picchu

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Machu Picchu also provides a secure habitat for several endangered species, notably the spectacled bear, one of the most interesting species in the area. Others animals include: dwarf brocket, the otter, long-tailed weasel, pampas cat and the vulnerable ocelot, boa, the Andean cock of the rock, and the Andean condor.

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The natural vegetation is of humid and very humid lower montane forest of the subtropical region, mainly with genera and ferns of the Cyathea and palms.Set on the vertiginous site of a granite mountain sculpted by erosion and dominating a meander in the Rio Urubamba, Machu Picchu is a world renowned archaeological site. The construction of this amazing city, set out according to a very rigorous plan, comprises one of the most spectacular creations of the Inca Empire.

It appears to date from the period of the two great Incas, Pachacutec Inca Yupanqui (1438-71) and Tupac Inca Yupanqui (1472-93). The function of this city situated at least 100 km from the capital, Cuzco, has not been formulated which are not verifiable given the absence of written documentation and sufficiently explicit material evidence.

Without making a judgement as to their purpose, several quite individual quarters may be noted in the ruins of Machu Picchu: a quarter 'of the Farmers' near the colossal terraces whose slopes were cultivated and transformed into hanging gardens; an 'industrial' quarter; a 'royal' quarter and a 'religious' quarter.

Inca architecture reveals itself here in all of its force with the titanic earthen works which multiplied the platforms, levelled the rocky relief, constructed ramps and stairways and literally sculpted the mountain whose cyclopean constructions appear to be a prolongation of nature.

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Colonia del Sacramento Uruguay

The Historic Quarter of the City of Colonia del Sacramento bears remarkable testimony in its layout and its buildings to the nature and objectives of European colonial settlement, in particular during the seminal period at the end of the 17th century. Dom Pedro, Prince Regent of Portugal, commissioned his chief minister Manuel Lobo, named Governor of Rio de Janeiro, in 1678 to found a settlement on the Río de la Plata, on the island of St Gabriel. Work began in 1680 and in 1690 Master Church and the Franciscan convent were built.

Continent: South America

Country: Uruguay

Category: Cultural

Criterion: (IV)

Date of Inscription: 1995

Colonia Del Sacramento

In 1704-5, during the War of the Spanish Succession, the town was razed to the ground after it was taken. Reconstruction began immediately, and by 1718 there were over 1,000 inhabitants. From the time that Antonio Pedro de Vasconcellos took over as Governor in 1722, Sacramento became the powerhouse of material, commercial and cultural development in the colony. The success of Sacramento as a commercial entrepot had a decisive influence on the development of Buenos Aires and its region.

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The town changed hands again in 1762 when it was taken over by the Spanish, but returned to Portugal the following year, after yet another treaty was signed by the two rival powers. The successful siege of 1777 saw Sacramento definitively incorporated in the Spanish Empire under the terms of the treaty of San Ildefonso; part of the fortifications were dismantled and a few houses demolished, but the urban fabric for the most part survived. Between 1839 and 1851 the new nation was engaged in the 'Great War' against its neighbour, Argentina. What remained of its defences was finally demolished in 1859. However, much influence had passed to the national capital, Montevideo. The historical importance of Sacramento was first recognized in 1924, when there was an unsuccessful attempt to have part of the town designated a National Monument.

The Old Portuguese town, Nova Colonia do Santissimo Sacramento, was built on the extreme west side of a peninsula near the Río de la Plata. The town itself was bounded by water on its north, west and south sides and to the east by the former lines of defensive walls and bastions.

Today the historic area is defined by the axis of Calle Ituzaingo. The range of buildings is wide in both time and style, and the town has preserved its urban layout and a remarkable collection of structures bearing witness to its more than three centuries of Portuguese, Spanish, and Uruguayan history. Its form is organic, adapted to the topography of the site. It also exercised an unquestioned influence on architectural development in colonial style on either side of the Río de la Plata, where there are examples of Portuguese influence. A number of distinguished Portuguese architects served the Portuguese state in the former Colonia del Sacramento.

The foundation of the town was in fact a somewhat delayed consequence of the claims of the two great colonial powers, Portugal and Spain, in South America, who competed for the power to export the riches of the mines in Peru and the fruits of the agricultural areas in Brazil.

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