Did you know that the new UNESCO World Heritage sites include a total of 139 First World War funerary and memorial sites located between Belgium and France, one of which is the Saint-Symphorien military cemetery?
On Wednesday, September 20, 2023, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), registered the Funerary and Memorial Sites of the First World War on the World Heritage List. A total of 16 sites are concerned in Wallonia. These include emblematic sites such as the Fort de Loncin in Liège, the Belle-Motte French military cemetery in Aiseau-Presles, and the Saint-Symphorien military cemetery in Mons, where Commonwealth soldiers lie alongside German graves.
This recognition is the result of several years' collaboration between the Walloon, Flemish and French administrations, as well as sites managers and local communities.
Wallonia's Minister for Heritage, Valérie De Bue, is delighted with this news:
"The registration of these sites in Wallonia celebrates the diversity of this rich heritage. They were designed by renowned architects and landscape architects, enabling each nation to express its identity and culture. This architectural and landscape heritage of exceptional universal importance, now recognized by UNESCO, is worthy of the memory of the victims and of the reconciliation of peoples through a memory that is kept alive."
The General Delegation of Wallonia-Brussels would also like to congratulate Quebec on the registration of Anticosti Island as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Quebec province's largest island is world-renowned for its exceptional fossils. The Delegation also highlights the excellent acknowledgement obtained for the archaeological and historical components of the Tr'ondëk-Klondike mining region, in the Yukon.
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