List of World Heritage Sites in Switzerland

Saint John

La Chaux-de-Fonds

Lavaux

Monte San Giorgio

Old City of Berne

Rhaetian Railway

Jungfrau-Aletsch

Glarus thrust

Bellinzona

Abbey of Saint Gall

Villa Le Lac

Immeuble Clarté

Ägelmoos

Riesi

Vingelz / Hafen

Dorfstation

Lobsigensee

Rütte

Bahnhof

Strandboden

Les Grèves

Spitz

Môtier I

Segelboothafen

En Praz des Gueux

Port

Bourg

Egolzwil 3

Seematte

Port-Conty

Les Argilliez

L’Abbaye 2

La Saunerie

Les Graviers

Kehrsiten

Weier I - III

Freienbach–Hurden Rosshorn

Freienbach–Hurden Seefeld

Burgäschisee Ost

Inkwilersee Insel

Feldbach (Seegubel)

Rapperswil-Jona–Technikum

Bleiche 2-3

Insel Werd

Egelsee

Nussbaumersee

Pointe de Montbec I

La Bessime

Village

Stations de Concise

Corcelettes Les Violes

Les Roseaux

Stations de Morges

Chenevières de Guévaux I

Baie de Clendy

Le Marais

Oterswil / Insel Eielen

Riedmatt

Sumpf

Erlenbach–Winkel

Greifensee–Storen/Wildsberg

Meilen–Rorenhaab

Wädenswil–Vorder Au

Wetzikon-Robenhausen

Zürich–Enge Alpenquai

Grosser Hafner

Location of World Heritage Sites within Switzerland. The green dots indicate the pile dwellings sites, 56 in total.

This is a list of World Heritage Sites in Switzerland with properties of cultural and natural heritage in Switzerland as inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List or as on the country's tentative list.[1] Switzerland accepted the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage on 17 September 1975, after which it could nominate properties on their territory to be considered for the World Heritage List.[2]

As of 2019, there are twelve properties in Switzerland inscribed on the World Heritage List, nine cultural and three natural sites. The first three were added to the list in 1983 and the latest in 2019. In addition, there are two sites on the tentative list.[1]

World Heritage Sites

UNESCO lists sites under ten criteria; each entry must meet at least one of the criteria. Criteria i through vi are cultural, whereas vii through x are natural.[3]

  * Transnational site

Site	Image	Location (canton)	Year listed	UNESCO data	Description
Old City of Berne		Bern	1983	267; iii (cultural)	Founded in the 12th century on a hill site surrounded by the Aare River, Bern developed along the peninsula. Following a devastating fire, the entire town was rebuilt in a unified style. The early wooden buildings were replaced with sandstone, followed by arcades in the 15th century arcades and fountains in the 16th century. The medieval town was rebuilt in the 18th century, but retained its earlier character.[4]
Convent of St Gall		St. Gallen	1983	268; ii, iv (cultural)	The Carolingian Convent of St Gall was one of the most important in Europe. It was in operation from the 8th century to its secularization in 1805. Its library is one of the richest and oldest in the world and contains a number of precious manuscripts such as the Plan of Saint Gall. Portions of the building were rebuilt in the Baroque style.[5]
Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair		Grisons	1983	269; iii (cultural)	The Convent of Müstair is a Christian monastery from the Carolingian period. It has Switzerland's greatest series of figurative murals, painted c. 800 AD, along with other Romanesque art and designs.[6]
Three Castles of Bellinzona		Ticino	2000	884; iv (cultural)	The Bellinzona site consists of a group of fortifications grouped around the castle of Castelgrande, which stands on a rocky peak looking out over the entire Ticino valley. Running from the castle, a series of fortified walls protect the ancient town and block the passage through the valley. A second castle (Montebello) forms an integral part of the fortifications, while a third but separate castle (Sasso Corbaro) was built on an isolated rocky promontory south-east of the other fortifications.[7]
Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch		Bern and Valais	2007	1037bis; vii, viii, ix (natural)	The site includes several of the highest mountains in the Central Alps along with the largest glacier in Eurasia. The landscape provides information on the succession of plants after the retreat of a glacier and allows study of the retreat of glaciers resulting from climate change. The impressive landscape has also played an important role in European art, literature, mountaineering and tourism.[8]
Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces		Vaud	2007	1243; iii, iv, v (cultural)	The Lavaux Vineyard Terraces stretch for about 30 km (19 mi) along the south-facing northern shores of Lake Geneva from Chillon Castle to the eastern outskirts of Lausanne in the Vaud region. The current terraces can be traced back to the 11th century, when Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries controlled the area.[9]
Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes*		Grisons	2008	1276; ii, iv (cultural)	The Rhaetian Railway in the Albula / Bernina Landscapes, brings together two historic railway lines that cross the Swiss Alps through those two passes. The railways provided a rapid and easy route into many formerly isolated alpine settlements. Building the railroads required overcoming a number of technical challenges with bridges and tunnels.[10]
Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona		Grisons, Glarus, St. Gallen	2008	1179; viii (natural)	The Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona in the north-eastern part of the country covers a mountainous area which features seven peaks that rise above 3,000 m (9,800 ft). The area displays an exceptional example of mountain building through continental collision and displays a clear example of tectonic thrust, i.e. the process whereby older, deeper rocks are carried onto younger, shallower rocks. The site has been a key site for the geological sciences since the 18th century.[11]
La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning		Neuchâtel	2009	1302; iv (cultural)	The site consists of two towns situated close to one another in a remote environment in the Swiss Jura mountains. Due to poor agricultural land, the watchmaking industry developed in the towns in the 19th century. After several devastating fires the towns were rebuilt to support this single industry. The town of La Chaux-de-Fonds was described by Karl Marx as a “huge factory-town” in Das Kapital where he analyzed the division of labour in the watchmaking industry of the Jura.[12]
Monte San Giorgio*		Ticino	2010	1090; viii (natural)	The pyramid-shaped, wooded mountain of Monte San Giorgio beside Lake Lugano is regarded as the best fossil record of marine life from the Triassic Period (245–230 million years ago). The sequence records life in a tropical lagoon environment, sheltered and partially separated from the open sea by an offshore reef. Diverse marine life flourished within this lagoon, including reptiles, fish, bivalves, ammonites, echinoderms and crustaceans. Because the lagoon was near land, the remains also include land-based fossils of reptiles, insects and plants, resulting in an extremely rich source of fossils.[13]
Prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps*		56 locations	2011	1363; iv, v (cultural)	Contains 111 small individual sites with the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling (or stilt house) settlements in and around the Alps built from around 5000 to 500 B.C. on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. They contain a wealth of information on life and trade in agrarian Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures in Alpine Europe. Fifty-six of the sites are located in Switzerland.[14]
The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement*		Vaud, Geneva	2016	1321rev; i, ii, vi (cultural)	This transnational site encompasses 17 works of Franco-Swiss architect Le Corbusier in 7 countries, bearing testimony to his innovative break with the past in order to adapt the architecture to the needs of the modern society. Two sites are listed in Switzerland, Immeuble Clarté and Villa Le Lac.[15]

Tentative list

In addition to the sites inscribed on the World Heritage list, member states can maintain a list of tentative sites that they may consider for nomination. Nominations for the World Heritage list are only accepted if the site has previously been listed on the tentative list.[16] As of 2019, Switzerland had two such sites on its tentative list.[17]

Site	Image	Location (canton)	Year listed	UNESCO criteria	Description
Salginatobel Bridge		Grisons	2017	i, iv (cultural)	The reinforced concrete bridge, 132 metres (433 ft) long and spanning 93 metres (305 ft) over the Salgina gorge, was designed by Swiss civil engineer Robert Maillart (1872-1949) and was completed in 1930. The bridge is prominent due to the innovative use of new materials during the construction and elegant design.[18]
Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (expansion)		Ticino, Solothurn	2018	ix (natural)	This is an expansion of the site already listed in 12 European countries. The sites document the post-glacial expansion of European beech. Two sites in Switzerland are listed, Forêt de la Vallée de Lodano and Forêt de la Bettlachstock.[19]