List of World Heritage Sites in Spain facts for kids
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage.
As of 2010, Spain has 42 total sites on the list. This is second only to Italy.
The Pyrénées – Mont Perdu World Heritage Site is shared with France. The Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde site is shared with Portugal.
List of sites
The table lists information about each World Heritage Site:
- Name: as listed by the World Heritage Committee
- Location: city or province of site
- Community: one of the 17 autonomous communities of Spain
- Period: time period of significance, typically of construction
- UNESCO data: the site's reference number; the year the site was added on the World Heritage List; the criteria it was listed under: criteria i through vi are cultural, while vii through x are natural; (the column sorts by year added to the list)
- Description: brief description of the site
Name | Image | Location | Community | Period | UNESCO data | Description | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain | Santillana del Mar | Cantabria | Upper Paleolithic | 310; 1985, 2008 (extended); i, iii | The Cave of Altamira has cave painting from the Upper Paleolithic, 35,000 to 11,000 BC. | ||
Old Town of Segovia and its Aqueduct | Segovia | Castile and León | 1st to 16th centuries | 311; 1985; i, iii, iv | A Roman aqueduct, the medieval Alcázar palace, and the cathedral. | ||
Monuments of Oviedo and the Kingdom of the Asturias | Oviedo | Asturias | 9th century | 312; 1985, 1998 (extended); i, ii, iv | The Kingdom of Asturias was the only Christian region of Spain in the 9th century. It developed its own style of Pre-Romanesque art and architecture. | ||
Historic Centre of Córdoba | Córdoba | Andalusia | 7th to 13th centuries | 313; 1984, 1994 (extended); i, ii, iii, iv | The Great Mosque of Córdoba is a 7th-century mosque converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral in the 13th century. During Moorish rule, Córdoba looked like Constantinople and Baghdad. | ||
Alhambra, Generalife and Albayzín | Granada | Andalusia | 14th century | 314; 1984, 1994 (extended); i, iii, iv | Moorish influence in southern Spain. The Alhambra and the palace Generalife were built by the Emirate of Granada. | ||
Burgos Cathedral | Burgos | Castile and León | 13th to 16th centuries | 316; 1984; ii, iv, vi | The Gothic-style cathedral was built between the 13th and 16th centuries. It is the burial place of Spanish national hero, El Cid. | ||
Monastery and Site of the Escorial | San Lorenzo de El Escorial | Madrid | 16th century | 318; 1984; i, ii, vi | El Escorial was a residence of the royal family. | ||
Works of Antoni Gaudí | Barcelona | Catalonia | 19th and 20th centuries | 320; 1984, 2005 (extended); i, ii, iv | The architecture of Antoni Gaudí is part of the Modernist style. | ||
Santiago de Compostela (Old Town) | Santiago de Compostela | Galicia | 10th and 11th centuries | 347; 1985; i, ii, vi | The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela is the reputed burial-place of the apostle James. The town was destroyed by Moors in the 10th century and later rebuilt. | ||
Old Town of Ávila with its Extra-Muros Churches | Ávila | Castile and León | 11th century | 348; 1985, 2007 (modified); iii, iv | The defensive wall surrounding the original town was built in the 11th century. | ||
Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon | Provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza | Aragon | 12th to 17th centuries | 378; 1986, 2001 (extended); iv | The churches in Teruel are a blending of traditional Islamic and contemporary European styles. | ||
Historic City of Toledo | Toledo | Castile-La Mancha | 8th to 16th centuries | 379; 1986; i, ii, iii, iv | Toledo was founded by the Romans and was the capital of the Visigoths. It was important in Muslim Spain and during the Reconquista. | ||
Garajonay National Park | La Gomera | Canary Islands | N/A | 380; 1986; vii, ix | The park is 70% covered by laurel forest. This has disappeared from mainland Europe. | ||
Old City of Salamanca | Salamanca | Castile and León | 13th to 16th centuries | 381; 1988; i, ii, iv | The University of Salamanca, founded in 1218, is the oldest in Spain. The city was conquered by the Carthaginians in the 3rd century, and later ruled by the Romans and Moors. | ||
Cathedral, Alcázar and Archivo de Indias in Seville | Seville | Andalusia | 13th to 16th centuries | 383; 1987; i, ii, iii, iv | The Alcázar was built during the Almohad dynasty that ruled southern Spain until the Reconquista. | ||
Old Town of Cáceres | Cáceres | Extremadura | 3rd to 15th centuries | 384; 1986; iii, iv | The old town combines Roman, Islamic, Northern Gothic, and Italian Renaissance architecture, with more than 30 Islamic towers. | ||
Ibiza, Biodiversity and Culture | Ibiza | Balearic Islands | N/A | 417; 1999; ii, iii, iv, ix, x | The coast of Ibiza has a sea grass only found in the Mediterranean. The island also has many Phoenician ruins. | ||
Poblet Monastery | Vimbodí | Catalonia | 12th and 13th centuries | 518; 1991; i, iv | The monastery was founded by the Cistercians in 1151 and is one of the largest in Spain. | ||
Renaissance Monumental Ensembles of Úbeda and Baeza | Province of Jaén | Andalusia | 16th century | 522; 2003; ii, iv | Among the first examples of the Renaissance style in Spain. | ||
Archaeological Ensemble of Mérida | Mérida | Extremadura | 1st to 5th centuries | 664; 1993; iii, iv | Mérida was founded in 25 BC by the Romans as Emerita Augusta. | ||
Royal Monastery of Santa María de Guadalupe | Guadalupe | Extremadura | 13th to 16th centuries | 665; 1993; iv, vi | The monastery is home of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a shrine to Mary. | ||
Route of Santiago de Compostela | — | Aragon, Castile and León, Galicia, Navarre, and La Rioja | N/A | 669; 1993; ii, iv, vi | The Route, or the Way of St. James, is a pilgrimage from the French-Spanish border to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. | ||
Doñana National Park | Provinces of Huelva and Seville | Andalusia | N/A | 685; 1994, 2005 (extended); vii, ix, x | The park has the delta region where the Guadalquivir River reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the largest heronries in the Mediterranean with 500,000+ water fowl during the winter. | ||
Pyrénées – Mont Perdu | — | Aragon (shared with France) | N/A | 773; 1997, 1999 (extended); iii, iv, v, vii, viii | The site has the Pyrenees mountain chain along the French-Spanish border. | ||
Historic Walled Town of Cuenca | Cuenca | Castile-La Mancha | 12th to 18th centuries | 781; 1996; ii, v | The Moors built the fortified city in the early 8th century. | ||
La Lonja de la Seda de Valencia | Valencia | Valencia | 15th and 16th centuries | 782; 1996; i, iv | La Lonja de la Seda means Silk Exchange in English. | ||
Las Médulas | Ponferrada | Castile and León | 1st to 3rd centuries | 803; 1997; i, ii, iii, iv | The Romans made a gold mine and worked the site for two centuries. | ||
Palau de la Música Catalana and Hospital de Sant Pau, Barcelona | Barcelona | Catalonia | 20th century | 804; 1997; i, ii, iv | Both buildings were built in the early 20th century in the modernist Art Nouveau style. | ||
San Millán Yuso and Suso Monasteries | San Millán de la Cogolla | La Rioja | 6th to 16th centuries | 805; 1997; ii, iv, vi | The original Suso monastery was founded in the mid-6th century. It has the first written examples of the Spanish and Basque languages. | ||
Prehistoric Rock-Art Sites in the Côa Valley and Siega Verde | — | Castile and León (shared with Portugal) | Palaeolithic | 866; 1998, 2010 (extended); i, iii | The Upper Palaeolithic rock art in the Côa Valley of Portugal, and the Siega Verde in Spain. | ||
Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula | — | Andalusia, Aragon, Castile-La Mancha, Catalonia, Murcia, and Valencia | Prehistoric | 874; 1998; iii | The site includes 750 examples of rock art with images of geometric shapes and scenes of men hunting animals. | ||
Archaeological Ensemble of Tárraco | Tarragona | Catalonia | 1st to 4th centuries | 875; 2000; ii, iii | The prominent Roman city of Tárraco is at the site of modern-day Tarragona. | ||
University and Historic Precinct of Alcalá de Henares | Alcalá de Henares | Madrid | 16th century | 876; 1998; ii, iv, vi | The University of Alcalá, 1499, is the first planned university city. It was a model for others. The city is the birthplace of Miguel de Cervantes. | ||
San Cristóbal de La Laguna | San Cristóbal de La Laguna | Canary Islands | 16th to 18th centuries | 929; 1999; ii, iv | The city was Spain's first non-fortified colonial town. Many buildings date to the 16th century. | ||
Palmeral of Elche | Elche | Valencia | N/A | 930; 2000; ii, v | The grove of date palm trees was laid out with irrigation systems by the Moors in the 10th century. | ||
Roman Walls of Lugo | Lugo | Galicia | 3rd century | 987; 2000; iv | The Roman walls of Lucus are the best examples in Western Europe. | ||
Catalan Romanesque Churches of the Vall de Boí | Vall de Boí | Catalonia | 11th to 14th centuries | 988; 2000; ii, iv | The small valley at the edge of the Pyrenees has churches in Romanesque style, unique for their tall, square bell towers. | ||
Archaeological Site of Atapuerca | Atapuerca | Castile and León | Prehistoric | 989; 2000; iii, v | The caves in the Atapuerca Mountains have fossil remains of the earliest human beings discovered in Europe dating from nearly one million years ago. | ||
Aranjuez Cultural Landscape | Aranjuez | Madrid | 15th to 19th centuries | 1044; 2001; ii, iv | The area was the exclusive property of the royal family until the 19th century. | ||
Vizcaya Bridge | Portugalete | Basque Country | 19th century | 1217; 2006; i, ii | The bridge, built in 1893, is the world's first transporter bridge. | ||
Teide National Park | Tenerife | Canary Islands | N/A | 1258; 2007; vii, viii | The park contains Mount Teide, a volcano and the highest elevation in Spain. | ||
Tower of Hercules | A Coruña | Galicia | 1st century | 1312; 2009; iii | The Romans built this 55 metres (180 ft) lighthouse on a 57 metres (187 ft) rock at the entrance to the harbour. It is the only fully preserved and functioning Roman lighthouse. |
Sites by autonomous community
This is the list of Heritage sites by autonomous community.
Community | Exclusive sites | Shared sites |
---|---|---|
Castile and León | 6 | 2 |
Andalusia | 5 | 2 |
Catalonia | 5 | 1 |
Galicia | 4 | 1 |
Canary Islands | 3 | — |
Extremadura | 3 | — |
Madrid | 3 | — |
Castile-La Mancha | 2 | 2 |
Valencia | 2 | 1 |
Aragon | 1 | 2 |
La Rioja | 1 | 1 |
Asturias | 1 | — |
Basque Country | 1 | — |
Balearic Islands | 2 | — |
Cantabria | 1 | — |
Murcia | — | 1 |
Navarre | — | 1 |
Images for kids
See also
In Spanish: Anexo:Patrimonio de la Humanidad en España para niños
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List of World Heritage Sites in Spain Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.