As part of the settlements of the Moravian Church, Herrnhut has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since Friday. The responsible committee of the UN Organization for Education, Science, Culture and Communication (Unesco) announced the decision on Friday at its 46th session in New Delhi, India. This makes the small town in Saxony the third place in the Free State to be awarded World Heritage status after Muskauer Park and the Ore Mountains mining region.
This was celebrated on Saturday evening with a civic festival in Herrnhut. Guests included the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer (CDU). "Without the people here, this great success would not have been possible," he wrote on Platform X. Work on the application had been ongoing since 2017. "Saxony will benefit from this important work and passion, which has led to the Unesco World Heritage title, for many years to come."
The mayor of Herrnhut, Willem Riecke, was delighted. "It's important to me that we tackle the issue here in the town and in the region and make something good out of this World Heritage status," he told MDR.
