The World Heritage Committee last Thursday inscribed another five sites on UNESCO's World Heritage List: Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic Bridge of Visegrad, Rideau Canal (Canada), Bordeaux, Port of the Moon (France), the Old Town of Corfu (Greece), and Lavaux, vineyard terraces (Switzerland).
The Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic Bridge across the Drina River in the east of Bosnia and Herzegovina was built at the end of the 16th century by the court architect Sinan on the order of the Grand Vizier Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic. It is characteristic of the apogee of Ottoman monumental architecture and civil engineering. It numbers 11 masonry arches, with spans of 11 to 15 metres, and an access ramp at right angles with four arches on the left bank of the river. The 179.50 metre long bridge is a representative masterpiece of Mimar Koca Sinan, one of the greatest architects and engineers of the classical Ottoman period and a contemporary of the Italian Renaissance, with which his work can be compared. The unique elegance of proportion and monumental nobility of the property as a whole bear witness to the greatness of this style of architecture.
The Rideau Canal, a monumental early 19th-century canal covering 202 kilometres of the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers from Ottawa south to Kingston Harbour on Lake Ontario was built primarily for strategic military purposes at a time when Great Britain and the United States of America vied for control of the region. The Rideau Canal is of historical importance as it bears witness to the fight for control of the north of the American Continent.
The historic centre of Bordeaux, Port of the Moon, the port city in south-west France, is inscribed as an inhabited historic city, an outstanding urban and architectural ensemble, created in the age of Enlightenment, whose values continued up to the first half of the 20th century, with more protected buildings than any other French city, except Paris. It is also recognised for its historic role as a place of exchange of cultural values over more than 2,000 years, particularly since the 12th century due to commercial links with Britain and the Low Lands.
The Old Town of Corfu, on the Island of Corfu off the western coasts of Albania and Greece, is located in a strategic position at the entrance of the Adriatic Sea, and has its roots in the 8th century BC.
The Lavaux, vineyard terraces, stretching for about 30km along the south-facing northern shores of Lake Geneva from the Chateau de Chillon, to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the Vaud Region, cover the lower slopes of the mountain side between the villages and the lake, the UNESCO said.