36 JULY-AUGUST 2019
STORIES
GAMBERO ROSSO
”D
own from the mountains
hills overlap and intersect
like a rippling sea.” The
words are from more than half a
century ago and belong to the Treviso
writer Giovanni Comisso, but they
could very well also be the motivation
that drove, a few days ago, the Unesco
World Assembly, meeting in Baku
(Azerbaijan), to recognize the Hills
of Prosecco Superiore, as a World
Heritage Site. This is an expected
recognition, especially after a few
weeks Icomos (the International
Council of monuments and sites), an
advisory body of Unesco, had given
its positive opinion, “recommending”
the candidacy to the World Heritage
Committee. But above all this is a
recognition that arrives precisely in
the year of the 50th anniversary of
the birth of the denomination, to seal
the work that man, in these years, has
created to preserve and bring value to
the territory, thus extending the list
of Italian sites recognized as “Cultural
landscapes” linked to wine, after
the registration in 2014 of Langhe
Roero and Monferrato. The Veneto
axis Conegliano-Cortina, which in
a single month, brought home the
2026 Olympics and the UNESCO
proclamation is a unique success.
It certainly cannot be said that the
moment is not favourable for the area.
A TEN YEAR PROCESS
But let’s take a step back. The appli-
cation process was initiated in 2008
by the Consortium for the Protection
of the Conegliano Valdobbiadene
Prosecco DOCG which had started
the registration of the site in the
proposal list of the Ministry of Cul-
tural Heritage. In 2014 the Tempo-
rary Purpose Association (ACS) was
established and in 2017 the candi-
dacy was announced at the UNESCO
THE 10 UNESCO CULTURAL LANDSCAPE SITES
The landscape of the Hills of Conegliano and Valdobbiadene is the tenth site in
the world registered in the category of “cultural landscape”. Before it came the
awards for Alto Douro (Portugal), Tokaj (Hungary), Pico Island (Portugal), La-
vaux (Switzerland), Langhe Roero and Monferrato (Italy), Champagne (France),
Burgundy (France), Saint- Emilion (France), Wachau (Austria). All ten sites are
evolutionary cultural landscapes, whose visible result is given by human-envi-
ronment interaction, a vital, constantly evolving interaction.
