UNESCO has designated the small Saxon town of Herrnhut as a new world heritage site as part of the Moravian Moravian Church settlements. The responsible committee of the UN Organization for Education, Science, Culture and Communication (UNESCO) announced the decision on Friday at its 46th session in New Delhi, India.
Herrnhut is the origin of the Evangelical Brethren Church. Religious refugees from Moravia founded the town in 1722. The missing “d” in the name of the community “Brüdergemeine” is due to the language of that time, when people still spoke of Gemeindee.
When the Moravian Church later spread worldwide, Missionaries from Upper Lusatia also carried the building plan for new settlements to other countries One of them, Christiansfeld in Denmark, was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015.
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Herrnhut itself was added to the list through a transnational extension application. The town in East Saxony sought recognition together with Bethlehem in Pennsylvania in the USA and Gracehill in Northern Ireland.
Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf (1700–1760) had the Protestant religious refugees from Moravia Land was once made available for settlement in Upper Lusatia. On June 17, 1722, the carpenter Christian David felled the first tree to build the new town under the “Lord’s Hut”.
There are more than 50 World Heritage sites in Germany. And a decision on a purely German application is expected on Saturday: Schwerin and its castle on an island in the lake and other parts of the city center could then also end up on the list of world cultural heritage sites. The state capital of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has been on Germany’s list of suggestions for ten years.