Kiev: Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Related Monastic Buildings, Kiev-Pechersk Lavra

St Sophia, a Greek-cross church, is one of the major edifices representing the culture of Eastern Christianity in the 11th century, inspired by Byzantine models. the stylistic features of its decoration were spread throughout Kievan Russia in the 11th century by the icon painters working in Kiev. Kiev-Pechersk Lavra is of outstanding significance in the Ukrainian national heritage, and the ancient monastic foundation plays a very important role in the spiritual and intellectual life of the Russian world.

The construction of St Sophia Cathedral was begun in the first half of the 11th century, probably in 1037 by Yaroslav the Sage. It was meant to replace Kiev's very first church, the Dessiatinnaya (Our Lady of the Tithes), built by his great-grandmother Duchess Olga in 952. Conceived in opus mixtum, with 12 columns dividing the interior into five naves, the church represents a perfect fusion between symbolic image and architecture: the big central gilt cupola and twelve smaller cupolas which crown it evoke Christ and the 12 Apostles in a pyramidal composition so strongly expressed that it was not diminished in the restoration of the onion domes in the 18th century

A complex of monastic buildings surrounds the church. Built originally of wood in 1633, the buildings were destroyed by fire in 1697 and reconstructed in stone. The four-storey bell tower, overhung by a gilt onion cupola, the Metropolitan's house, the refectory, the west gate, the tower at the south entrance, the Brothers' building, and the seminary were built. A stone enceinte encircled these buildings, which are typical of Ukrainian Baroque style, the influence of which can also be seen in contemporary restoration work on the cathedral. Designated an 'Architectural and Historical Reserve of the State' in 1934, St Sophia was spared the widespread devastation of the Second World War. It is now administered as a monument museum.

In a wooded area on two hills overlooking the right bank of the Dnieper River is Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, a monastery complex consisting of numerous monuments and grottoes. Now the area is surrounded by the urban agglomeration of Greater Kiev, which has undergone rapid expansion since 1980.

The Lavra boasts very ancient origins and rapidly became the seat of a community governed by the abbot St Theodosius. With the support of the Princes of Kiev, the monastery immediately began to prosper. Devastated by the Mongols and the Tatars, Lavra was almost entirely rebuilt in the 17th century and afterward. A print shop was founded in 1615, mainly issuing devotional literature and history. The Lavra played a highly important intellectual role: these were times of great prosperity, when pilgrims flocked to the site, and the grounds were filled with numerous Baroque monuments. The Clock Tower and the Refectory Church are two of the main landmarks in a monastic landscape totally transformed by the construction or the renovation of numerous churches. Declared a 'Historical and Cultural Reserve' in 1926, the Lavra was very severely damaged in 1941 when its oldest edifice, the Dormition Cathedral, was almost fully destroyed.

Today the major elements of the very old historic heritage are Trinity Church, whose 12th-century structure is hidden by the extremely rich Baroque decor, and especially the catacombs, which include the Near Caves and the Far Caves, whose entrances are respectively at All Saints' Church and at the Church of the Conception of St Anna. Over the years the monks' cells became a necropolis where hundreds of their mummified bodies have been preserved.

Most of the monuments of the Lavra had new cultural functions in 1926: the Metropolitan's residence is now the State Museum of Ukrainian Decorative Folk Art, the printshop houses the Book and Bookbinding Museum, the Refectory Church is a museum of Christianity, and the Church of the Exaltation of the Cross is the museum of the history of the catacombs.

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC

Churches And Convents Of Goa

These monuments of Goa exerted great influence in the 16th-18th centuries on the development of architecture, sculpture, and painting by spreading forms of Manueline, Mannerist and Baroque art throughout the countries of Asia where Catholic missions were established. In so doing they illustrate the work of missionaries in Asia.

The Portuguese explorer Alfonso de Albuquerque conquered Goa in 1510 and the Portuguese ruled the territory until 1961. The colony of Goa, which has its centre in Old Goa, became the capital of the vast eastern Portuguese Empire, sharing the same civic privileges as Lisbon. By 1635, the successive waves of Europeans brought about the inevitable decline of Goa.

In 1542 the Jesuits, who were driven by the ardour of medieval crusaders, arrived in the city and Francis Xavier, one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, rapidly became the patron saint of Goa. The churches in Old Goa aimed to awe the local population into conversion and to impress upon them the superiority of the foreign religion. The facades were accordingly made tall and lofty and the interiors were magnificent, with twisted Bernini columns, decorated pediments, profusely carved and gilded altars, and colourful wall paintings and frescoes.

Local laterite was used in the construction of the churches, which had to be plastered and finished with a lime whitewash, while the trimmings were sometimes of basalt. The colour white was so identified with churches that the local administration ruled that no house could be painted that colour.

Of the 60 churches inventoried in the 18th century before the city was abandoned, seven major examples survive. The Sé Cathedral with its Tuscan exterior, Corinthian columns, raised platform with steps leading to the entrance, and barrel-vault is another example of Renaissance architecture. The paintings in the church were executed on wooden boards and fixed between panels with floral designs. Except for a few statues which are in stone, most of the other statues of the saints, the Virgin Mary, and Jesus were first carved in wood and then painted to adorn the altars.

The Chapel of St Catherine dating from 1510, the Church and Convent of Saint Francis of Assisi (which now houses the Archaeological Museum), and the Church of Bom Jesus where the mortal remains of St Francis Xavier rest, are some of the best in terms of design and style. Also of importance are St Gagtan and its seminary, Our Lady of the Rosary (one of the earliest churches to be built), and the Tower of St Augustine, all that remains of a convent built in 1572. The Church of St Cajetan has a facade decorated with lonic, Doric, and Corinthian pilasters.

Other monuments are partially or completely in ruins, but they nonetheless constitute an archaeological reserve of considerable interest.

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC

South China Karst

Lotus Cave

The South China Karst region extends over a surface of half a million km2 lying mainly in Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi provinces. It represents one of the world’s most spectacular examples of humid tropical to subtropical karst landscapes. The stone forests of Shilin are considered superlative natural phenomena and a world reference with a wider range of pinnacle shapes than other karst landscapes with pinnacles, and a higher diversity of shapes and changing colours. The cone and tower karsts of Libo, also considered the world reference site for these types of karst, form a distinctive and beautiful landscape. Wulong Karst has been inscribed for its giant dolines (sinkholes), natural bridges and caves.

Source: UNESCO/WHS

Architectural, Residential and Cultural Complex of the Radziwill Family at Nesvizh

The architectural, residential and cultural complex of the Radziwill family at Nesvizh was the cradle for inoculation of new concepts based on the synthesis of Western traditions, leading to the establishment of a new architectural school in Central Europe. It represents an important stage in the development of building typology in the history of architecture of the Central Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, in particular the Corpus Christij Church, typologically related to the cross-cupola basilica.

Built and occupied by the Radziwill family from the 16th to 20th centuries, the ensemble is located in the town of Nesvizh, in the Province of Minsk, in central Belarus. It consists of the castle-residence and the mausoleum church of Corpus Christij with their setting. The castle has ten interconnected buildings, including the palace, the galleries, the residence and the arsenal, which developed as one architectural whole around a six-sided courtyard. The buildings are set within the remains of the 16th-century fortifications that comprise four bastions and four curtain walls in a rectangular plan, surrounded by a ditch. Via a dam, the castle is connected to the Corpus Christij Church, which forms a block of the urban area of Nesvizh. The ensemble is in the middle of a cultural landscape that has various design components. The boundaries of the area cover an elongated territory with the main axe parallel to the Usha riverbed and waterfront.

The castle is oriented from west to east. The entrance is from the west through the gate building, the lower part of which is embedded in the rampart. It has an octagonal two-storey gate tower, topped with a helm. The original structure dates from the 16th century. The first floor and the tower were added in the 18th century. The principal building of the complex is the palace, which occupies the centre of the east side of the inner yard. It also dates from the 16th century, and was enlarged in the 18th century. This is a three-storey building on an almost square floor plan.

The corners are strengthened by four octagonal towers with alcoves. The facade is decorated by stucco work by Antoni Zaleski. The ground floor, originally used as a treasury, has preserved the 16th-century vaults. The main staircase is decorated by the 18th-century representation of 'Aurora' Francisezek Smuglewicz. On the first floor the interiors date from the 18th and 19th centuries. The south side of the court has the three-storey Residence building, built in the 16th century, with a tower. The north side has a corresponding Arsenal building, which also used to house a chapel. These are connected to the palace via gallery structures, which cut the corners of the court. The court is then closed by annexes that connect these buildings to the gate structure.

Corpus Christij Church lies in the eastern part of the town of Nesvizh, next to the street leading to the castle. The plan of the building is based on a Latin cross, with an elongated rectangular body from which project two lateral chapels with five sides and an apsidal chancel. At the crossing of the nave and the transept there is dome. The side chapels are roofed with domes without lanterns.

Among the most valuable fittings are the tomb of Krzysztof Radziwill (1607) and the altar of Holy Cross (1583) by the Venetian sculptors Girolamo Campagna and Cesare Franco. The vaults of the church have frescoes by Ksawery D. Heski from 1852-53. The two-storey facade is divided by a prominent entablature, slightly offset on the axes of the pilasters and topped with a triangular gable. Under the church there is a crypt with the coffins of 72 members of the Radziwill family, dating from the 16th-20th centuries. The church is surrounded by an 18th-century boundary wall.

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC

Temple and Cemetery of Confucius and the Kong Family Mansion in Qufu

The Qufu complex of monuments has retained its outstanding artistic and historic character owing to the devotion of successive Chinese emperors over more than 2,000 years. The system of belief that Confucius (551-479 BC) created was adopted as the pre-eminent ideology in feudal Chinese society for more than 2,000 years. Two years after the death of Confucius, Duke Gun of Lu consecrated his former house in Qufu as a temple, within which were preserved his clothing, musical instruments, carriage and books. The temple was rebuilt in AD 153, and it was repaired and renovated several times in subsequent centuries. In AD 611 the temple was again rebuilt, and this time the original three-room house effectively disappeared as a component of the complex. In 1012 during the Song dynasty it was expanded into three sections with four courtyards, containing over 300 rooms. It was devastated by fire and vandalism in 1214, but rebuilding was commenced, so that by 1302 it had attained its former scale. An enclosure wall was built in 1331, on the model of an imperial palace. Following another disastrous fire in 1499 it was rebuilt once again, to its present scale.

The gateway to the temple is flanked by cypresses and pines on either side. The main part is arranged on a central axis and has nine courtyards. The first three, with their small gates and tall pines, lead the visitor into the heart of the religious complex. From the fourth courtyard onwards, the buildings are stately structures with yellow-tiled roofs and red-painted walls, set off by dark green pines, epitomizing the profundity and harmony of Confucianism. Over 1,000 stelae recording imperial donations and sacrifices from the Han dynasty onwards are preserved within the temple, along with outstanding examples of calligraphy and other forms of documentation, all priceless examples of Chinese art. There are many fine carved stones, among the most important being the Han stone reliefs (206 BC-AD 220) and the stone pillars and carved pictures depicting the life of Confucius of the Ming dynasty.

When Confucius died in 479 BC he was buried on the bank of the Si River, beneath a tomb in the form of an axe, with a brick platform for sacrifices. When Emperor Wu Di of the Western Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 24) accepted proposals to 'eliminate the hundred schools of thought and respect only Confucianism', the tomb became an important place of veneration and pilgrimage. By the 2nd century AD more than 50 tombs of Confucius's descendants had accumulated around the main tomb, and stelae commemorating him began to be erected in 1244. In 1331 Kong Sihui began building the wall and gate of the Cemetery, and this work continued with the addition of gate towers, arches, pavilions, and the access road from the north gate of the city of Qufu (1594). The exterior gate of the Cemetery is connected with the north gate of Qufu by a straight road lined with cypresses and pines. There is a narrow walled enclosure leading to the second gate, which gives access to an open area containing grass, trees and a river; to the west, after crossing the Zhu River Bridge, the visitor comes upon the tomb of Confucius.

The descendants of Confucius lived and worked in the Kong Family Mansion, guarding and tending the temple and cemetery, and were given titles of nobility by successive emperors. The hereditary title of Duke Yan Sheng granted by Emperor Ren Zhong of the Song dynasty (960-1279) was borne by successive direct male descendants until 1935, when the title was changed to State Master of Sacrifice and First Teacher. The mansion follows the traditional Chinese layout, with the official rooms at the front and residential quarters at the rear. At its apogee in the 16th century, the mansion was made up of 170 buildings with 560 rooms, but only 152 buildings with 480 rooms survive. Many important cultural relics are preserved within the Mansion, including scrolls and paintings. The interior decor is that of the later Qing dynasty and the Republic of China (1912-49).

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC

Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area

The site lies in the Wulingyuan District of the city of Dayong and covers the entire drainage basin of the Suoxi Brook, which winds for 69 km through the site. The most notable feature, dominating about two-thirds of the site, are more than 3,000 quartzite sandstone pillars and peaks. Between the peaks are numerous ravines and gorges, many containing attractive streams, pools and waterfalls. The site also contains a number of karst features, notably some 40 caves which are concentrated on the banks of the Suoxiyu River and the south-east side of Tianzi Mountain. Huanglong or Yellow Dragon Cave is said to be one of the 10 largest caves in China. Spectacular calcite deposits are a major feature of many of these caves.

There are two spectacular natural bridges in the area: Xianrenqias (Bridge of the Immortals) and Tianqiashengkong (Bridge Across the Sky). It lies 357 m above the valley floor and may be the highest natural bridge in the world. The site is popularly known to have '800 brooks and streams' but in reality, there are far less, perhaps 60. Many drain into the Suoxi River which runs through the centre of the site. One of the side branches of this river has been dammed at one point, creating Baojeng Lake. This lake has been created for water supply, flood control and to enhance the habitat for the Chinese giant salamander as well as for recreation.

Wulingyuan lies in the Central China Botanic Region of the Sino-Japanese Botanic Zone, and was a refuge for many ancient species during the Quaternary glacial period. Below 700 m the community is predominantly evergreen broadleaf. Between 700 m and 950 m, there is a mixed community of evergreen and deciduous broadleaved trees. There are also some coniferous species including Chinese plum yew and pines. Above 950 m, there is a community of deciduous broadleaved trees, bushes and herbs; in some areas below 1,000 m, extensive communities are dominated by pine.

3,000 species of plant occur within the area, including some 600 species of woody plant; these are split fairly evenly between tropical/subtropical and temperate species. Many of the species are of value for timber, medical or ornamental purposes.

A number of faunal species are globally threatened with extinction: Chinese giant salamander, Asiatic wild dog, Asiatic black bear, clouded leopard, leopard and Chinese water deer. The clouded leopard population is likely to be very small, although tracks and others signs have been found they have never actually been seen.

Unlike many other areas of China, the site does not have a long human history. In ancient times it was regarded as remote and inaccessible. Local legends indicate that Zhangliang, a lord in the Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 220), lived in seclusion in Wulingyuan and was buried below Qingyan (now Zhangjiajie) Mountain.

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC

Vilnius Historic Centre

Vilnius is an outstanding example of a medieval foundation which exercised a profound influence on architectural and cultural developments in a wide area of Eastern Europe over several centuries. In the townscape and the rich diversity of buildings that it preserves, Vilnius is an exceptional illustration of a central European town that evolved organically over five centuries.

On a site that had been intermittently occupied from the Neolithic period, a wooden castle was built around AD 1000 to fortify Gedimino Hill, at the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia rivers. The settlement did not develop as a town until the 13th century, during the struggles of the Baltic peoples against their German invaders. By 1323, when the first written reference to Vilnia occurs, it was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania founded by Prince Gedymin, ancestor of the Galitzin family. At this time some brick structures had apparently been erected on a small island formed when the Vilnia changed its course.

Lithuania was the last great pagan state in Eastern Europe to be converted to Christianity, in 1387, when Grand Duke Jagaila was baptized. This opened Vilnius to the Western world, as in the same year it adopted the Magdeburg Statutes. However, it was not until 1410 when the Teutonic Order was destroyed at the battle of Tannenberg that it became safe from marauders and invaders.

The rapidly expanding town was struck by a disastrous fire in 1471, when the first religious establishments (cathedral, parish church of St John and Franciscan and Cistercian monasteries) were destroyed. The only surviving remains from the earliest period are therefore the walls, some sections of which survive beneath the defences built in 1503-22 against Tatar incursions. The town was partially reconstructed after another major fire in 1530, when an attempt to rationalize the medieval street pattern was largely unsuccessful. This was a period of commercial and cultural development. Close trading links were established with both Western and Eastern Europe, and these trading links led to the spread of Western culture into Byelorussia and the Ukraine.

A printing works was set up in 1522 and a university in 1579. Yet another fire in 1610 saw the destruction of the newly built Lower Castle and the new cathedral. The subsequent reconstruction included extensive church building: the churches of St Michael, St Stephen, St Casimir, All Saints, and St Theresa all date from this period. At the beginning of the war with Russia (1654-67) Vilnius had no fewer than 41 religious buildings, though many were lost during the conflict. Most of the older buildings in wood were lost in a series of fires (in 1715, 1737, 1748 and 1749), but it was the successive reconstructions that gave the town many of the buildings of special character, including the cathedral, town hall, arsenal, and the Tyzenhauzai, Rensai, Pacai and Masalskiai palaces. Many of the surviving earlier buildings were rebuilt or refurbished in Baroque style.

Annexation by Russia in 1795 led to the Lithuanian capital gradually losing some of its distinctive character. The fortified enceinte and Lower Castle were demolished in 1799; in 1837 Cathedral Square was laid out in strict academic style and St George Avenue was constructed cutting across the old town fabric. In the Second World War, over 80 old houses were destroyed, but reconstruction was put in hand with the end of hostilities. Major rehabilitation projects for the historic town centre were drawn up in 1956-58 and 1970-74.

The historic centre comprises the areas of the three castles (Upper, Lower and Curved) and the area that was encircled by a wall in the Middle Ages. The plan is basically circular, radiating out from the original castle site. The street pattern is typically medieval, with small streets dividing it into irregular blocks, but with large squares inserted in later periods.

The historic buildings are in Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and classical styles (with some later additions). Some 40% of them are adjudged to be of the highest category of architectural and historical importance. They constitute a townscape of great diversity and yet at the same time one in which there is an overarching harmony.

Source: UNESCO/CLT/WHC