The Salzkammergut World Heritage Management participated in the 20th Austrian World Heritage Conference, which took place at the World Heritage Site “City of Graz – Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg.” The conference addressed key questions concerning the complex and cross-cutting field of UNESCO World Heritage: How can World Heritage be best integrated into administrative processes to ensure its optimal preservation? What challenges does the urban environment pose for the conservation of World Heritage? How can the topic of renewable energy be approached and implemented sensitively within the context of cultural heritage? And how can maintenance and restoration be carried out in the best possible way with regard to authenticity and materiality?

About the Format

For 20 years, the Austrian World Heritage Conference has served as the most important forum in the context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention in Austria. Initiated by the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, it brings together World Heritage site managers, representatives from politics and administration at federal, provincial, and municipal levels, as well as academic experts, to support and advance the implementation of the Convention at the national level.

The focus lies on exchange and cooperation, as well as regular communication among those actors who share responsibility for the protection, management, and transmission of cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value. Both Austrian and international perspectives are represented through expert lectures, panel discussions, and on-site visits.

Central to the conference are the inclusion of local communities, as well as questions of sustainability and sensitive development that take into account the unique and valuable cultural and natural heritage.

About World Heritage in Austria

The Republic of Austria ratified the World Heritage Convention in 1992, thereby committing itself to the objectives of the Convention. Subsequently, the World Heritage Convention was incorporated into federal law.

Currently, Austria, as a State Party, is represented on the UNESCO World Heritage List with 12 (partly transnational) World Heritage Sites:

• Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn
• Historic Centre of the City of Salzburg
• Cultural Landscape Hallstatt–Dachstein / Salzkammergut
• Semmering Railway
• City of Graz – Historic Centre and Schloss Eggenberg
• Cultural Landscape Wachau
• Historic Centre of Vienna
• Cultural Landscape Fertö / Neusiedlersee
• Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps
• Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe
• Great Spa Towns of Europe (including Baden bei Wien)
• Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Danube Limes (Western Segment)

The implementation of the World Heritage Convention, which is the responsibility of the Republic as a whole, requires the collaboration of a wide range of institutions, authorities, and stakeholders. These include the federal ministries responsible for culture and the environment, the Federal Monuments Authority, the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, the federal provinces and municipalities, as well as academic institutions, experts, and civil society actors.