swissinfo.ch: World Heritage Sites in Switzerland

BERN, Switzerland, May 5, 2010 - swissinfo.ch is presenting special multimedia reports on the
country's growing and diverse list of Unesco World Heritage Sites. The
special dossier, available online in Switzerland's national languages, is now
also in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese and Japanese. The reports
invite visitors on a virtual journey through the centuries to discover
Switzerland's cultural and natural treasures that are considered by Unesco to
be of "outstanding value to humanity".

The Unesco list includes 890 World Heritage Sites in 145 countries. Ten
of the sites are in Switzerland with the unique 19th century town planning of
the watchmaking centres Le Locle und La Chaux-de-Fonds the latest to be
recognised. Switzerland gained entry to the exclusive World Heritage club in
1983 when Bern's old town and the convents of St Gallen and St John at
Mustair were listed. Added over the years have been the three castles of
Bellinzona (2000), the Lavaux vineyard terraces (2007) and the Rhaetian
Railway lines in the Albula and Bernina area (2008).

Switzerland is the only alpine nation to be home to three Unesco World
Heritage Natural Sites: the Jungfrau-Aletsch region (2001), Monte San Giorgio
with its Triassic period fossils (2003), and the Tectonic Arena Sardona
(2008).

The Swiss are also involved in the candidature of two cross-border
proposals: the prehistoric pile dwelling sites spread across the Alps and the
works of architect Le Corbusier.

The multimedia reports including videos, galleries and interviews are
presented on swissinfo.ch in eight languages. Visitors to the website can
also test their World Heritage knowledge in a quiz.

swissinfo.ch is one of the enterprise units of SRG SSR idee suisse,
Switzerland's public-service radio and television broadcaster. Its remit is
to inform Swiss people abroad of what is going on at home, and to raise
awareness about Switzerland beyond its borders. To this end, swissinfo.ch
operates a news and information platform in nine languages at
www.swissinfo.ch/.

    Link :
    www.swissinfo.ch/eng/unesco

    Contact :
    Stefania Summermatter, Project Manager
    stefania.summermatter@swissinfo.ch
    +41-31-350-95-25

Contact : Stefania Summermatter, Project Manager, stefania.summermatter at swissinfo.ch, +41-31-350-95-25