EnglishThe World Heritage - a challenge for humanity
The campaign to save Abu-Simbel was the first step towards the Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972. This international treaty is based on the revolutionary idea to entrust humanity with the protection and preservation of outstanding cultural achievements and unique natural phenomena that are of outstanding universal value. The World Heritage Convention is a unique success story.
The World Heritage List includes 936 sites, of which 725 are cultural, 183 natural and 28 mixed. They are located in 153 countries.
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Convent of St Gall
Around the year 612, the travelling monk Gallus built a hermitage in the high valley of Steinach in eastern Switzerland. A century later, Abbot Otmar founded a monastery on the same spot which developed into an important centre of western culture and civilisation, experiencing high points in the early Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The late Baroque produced the architecturally unique Abbey District, comprising the Abbey, the Library and Archives, of which the latter two house unique manuscripts and documents dating from the early Middle Ages and other treasures of early European culture.
