UNESCO World Heritage
One city - four times World Heritage
Here, you’ll find four UNESCO World Heritage sites in one town. The UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Sites of the Bauhaus and the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz are in direct proximity to one another. Surrounding them is the unspoiled natural scenery of the UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve. Besides these, a student’s notes on Luther’s Lecture on the Epistle to the Romans has been part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program since 2016. This is safely stored away in the archives of the regional library, the Anhaltische Landesbibliothek.
Bauhaus Dessau
From 1925 to 1932, Bauhaus Dessau was the centre of Modernism. Architects such as Walter Gropius and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created a new kind of architecture, while artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and László Moholy-Nagy influenced the art of the twentieth century.
The Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz
Castles and parks, gardens and lakes, set in a landscaped environment – the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz is a unique symbiosis of natural and “cultural” scenery covering 142 square kilometres. In the year 2000, it was awarded the title of World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Biosphere Reserve
The UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve covers 126,000 hectares. It is one of 600 such reserves in more than 100 countries and simultaneously one of the last near-natural river landscapes in Europe, with an impressive array of flora and fauna.
Luther and the Epistle to the Romans
The copy of Luther’s Lecture on the Epistle to the Romans (1515-1516) with notes by student Sigismundus Reichenbach is part of the UNESCO Memory of the World Program since 2016. It is carefully preserved in the archives of the regional library, the Anhaltische Landesbibliothek.