List of World Heritage Sites in Albania

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Location of World Heritage Sites in Albania. Blue dots are cultural sites, green are natural, and red are mixed.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Sites are places of importance to cultural or natural heritage as described in the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, established in 1972.[1] Cultural heritage consists of monuments (such as architectural works, monumental sculptures, or inscriptions), groups of buildings, and sites (including archaeological sites). Natural features (consisting of physical and biological formations), geological and physiographical formations (including habitats of threatened species of animals and plants), and natural sites which are important from the point of view of science, conservation or natural beauty, are defined as natural heritage.[2] Albania ratified the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage on 10 July 1989, making its historical sites eligible for inclusion on the list.[3]

As of 2021, there are four sites in Albania inscribed on the list and further four sites on the tentative list.[4] The first site in Albania to be added to the list was the ancient city of Butrint which was inscribed at the 16th UNESCO session in 1992.[5] The historic centre of Gjirokastër was inscribed in 2005 as Museum-City of Gjirokastra.[6] In 2008, the historic centre of Berat was added to the site, to form the Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastër.[7][8] In 2017, the Gashi River and Rrajcë regions were listed as part of the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe that is shared with 17 other countries.[9] In 2019, the site Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid region, a World Heritage Site in North Macedonia since 1979, was expanded to include the Albanian part of the coast.[10]

  1. ^ "The World Heritage Convention". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2010.
  2. ^ "Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Albania". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  4. ^ "UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Tentative Lists". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  5. ^ "Butrint". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 24 May 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  6. ^ "Museum-City of Gjirokastra" (PDF). UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  7. ^ "Historic Centres of Berat and Gjirokastra". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  8. ^ "UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Three new sites inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 25 August 2018. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  9. ^ "Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 2 March 2012. Retrieved 8 September 2018.
  10. ^ "Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Ohrid Region". UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Archived from the original on 17 December 2017. Retrieved 6 July 2019.