UNESCO has expanded the World Heritage List with two sites of major historical and natural significance: Mount Olympus in Greece and the five Allied landing beaches in Normandy. The decision was taken at the 48th session of the World Heritage Committee in Busan, South Korea.
Mount Olympus receives dual status
According to the unanimously approved decision, Mount Olympus enters the list as a mixed World Heritage property because of its cultural and natural significance.
This classification places it among the few sites in the world protected at the same time for their mythological, historical and ecological value.
Mythological weight and biodiversity
In the tradition of ancient Greece, Olympus is known as the home of the 12 Olympian gods, giving the mountain a special symbolism in European cultural history.
Its natural dimension is equally important: the area is described as one of the richest spaces for biodiversity in Europe, with nearly 2,000 plant taxa, including dozens of species found nowhere else in the world, as well as rare wild fauna.
Normandy added for the memory of World War II
The decision also includes the five landing beaches in northern France, in Normandy, where on June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops landed.
These areas are directly linked to one of the decisive moments of World War II and to the offensive that led to the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi occupation.
What the committee assessed
According to the assessment of the International Council on Monuments and Sites, these spaces still preserve numerous historical remains, from German fortifications and traces of bombardment to Allied port structures and sunken ships.
In the reasoning presented to the committee, these sites are described as material testimony to an event that, according to this institution, was widely seen as the moment that made the return of freedom possible and opened the way for lasting peace in Europe.
With this decision, UNESCO’s list expands with two spaces representing two different dimensions of Europe’s collective memory: one linked to myth and nature, the other to war and modern history.