1. EXPERIENCES IN THE
MANAGEMENT OF THE
UNESCO WORLD
HERITAGE SITES
- THE CASE OF MODENA -
Francesca Piccinini
Coordinator of the Steering Committee of the
UNESCO World Heritage site of Modena
Bruxelles, September 7, 2011

2. The World Heritage List

4. The UNESCO sites in Italy
Of the 47 Italian sites:
• 43 are cultural sites;
• 3 are natural sites (the Aeolian
Islands, The Dolomites and Monte
San Giorgio);
• 1 is mixed (Cilento and Vallo di
Diano National Park with the
Archeological sites of Paestum and
Velia, and the Certosa di Padula).
Two more are in the list of
Intangible Cultural Heritage:
the Opera dei Pupi (Sicilian Puppet
Theatre) and
the Canto a tenore (Sardinian
Pastoral Songs),
besides the Mediterranean diet
(uniting Greece, Italy, Morocco
and Spain)

5. Cultural landscape
Costiera Amalfitana
Portovenere, Cinque Terre, and the
Islands (Plamaria, Tino and Tinetto)
Val d’Orcia

6. Serial sites
Mantua and
Sabbioneta Longobards in Italy. Places of
the power (568-774 A.D.)
Early Christian
Monuments of
Ravenna

7. Cross – border sites and archaeological industry
Prehistoric Pile
dwellings around the
Alps (2011)
Rhaetian Railway in the
Albula / Berniina
Landscapes (2008)
Monte San Giorgio (2010) Crespi d’Adda (1995)

8. European cultural routes
Route of Santiago de Compostela
1987
Via Francigena – 2004

9. Via Francigena

10. Budapest declaration (2002)

11. Management plan
This is why in Italy, since 2002:
1. each request for membership in the World Heritage List
must be accompanied by a management plan describing
how the exceptional value of the site will be protected;
2. guidelines were developed for the preparation and
implementation of management plans;
3. a specific methodology and a model for the
implementation of management plans were defined;
4. the debate on management plans, promoted and
coordinated by the Italian Ministry of Culture, was
accompanied by a series of national conferences
(Noto 2003; Paestum 2004, Torino 2005, Firenze 2007)

12. Management plan
In order to provide a solid help to the sites which are planning
to adopt the Management Plan, a law has been published.
It is called “Special measures for protection and fruition of the
Italian sites of cultural, scenic and environmental sites part of
the Unesco World Heritage List (n.77/2006) aiming at:
a)encouraging the drafting and the implementation of
management plans;
b) raise the awareness of Unesco World Heritage sites,
especially within schools;
c) qualify parking areas and mobility systems;
d) strengthen cultural services and reception facilities
for the public

13. Management plan
Among the sites registered in the list after 2002, therefore
having a management plan, we find:
• Syracuse and the Rocky Necropolis of Pantalica;
• Genoa: Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Palazzi dei
Rolli
Among previously registered sites that produced a
management plan we find:
• Rock Drawings in Valcamonica
• Archaeological Area of Agrigento
Published on the website www.unesco.beniculturali.it

14. Modena Cathedral, Torre Civica and Piazza Grande
“The joint creation of Lanfranco and Wiligelmo is a (1997)
masterpiece of human creative genius in which a
new dialectical relationship between architecture
and sculpture was created in Romanesque art.
The Modena complex bears exceptional witness
to the cultural traditions of the 12th century and is
one of the best examples of an architectural
complex where religious and civic values are
combined in a medieval Christian town.”

15. Criteria
I. Modena Cathedral, with its extraordinary
sculptural set, is a witness of human
genius of creation;
II. At the beginning of the XII Century,
Modena was one of the main places
where a new figurative language, destined
to affect all of local Romanesque art, was
being created. In a European context,
Modena Cathedral represents a special
testimony within the rebirth of stone
monumental sculpture;
III. Its construction is one of the most
important proofs of the urban society
existing in Northern Italy in the XII and XIII
centuries;
IV. The monumental set offers an example of
urban development in a tight connection
with civic values, particularly through the
relationships between economy, religion,
as well as the socio-political life of the city
it highlights.

16. Lanfranco and Wiligelmo
Enoch and Elia supporting the tablet with the
inscription recording the foundation of the
Cathedral and the sculptor Wiligelmus
(Facade of Modena Cathedral)
Miniatures of manuscript codex Relatio de
innovatione ecclesie Sancti Geminiani with
architect Lanfrancus ( Capitulary Archive of
Modena Cathedral)

17. Management plan 2008 – 09 / Law n. 77/2006
Maps of different lithotypes employed on the walls of Ghirlandina tower and Cathedral

18. Management plan 2008 – 09
Law n. 77/2006
Ghirlandina tower.
Left: diagnostic
tests
Right: restoration
works

19. Management plan 2008 – 09
Law n. 77/2006
www.unesco.mo.it
Guided tours on scaffoldings Quick guide of the Tourist road sign
Unesco site for pedestrians

20. Ideas for the future
•
Virtual tour of the cathedral and the tower
• new forms of collaboration at European level
• exchange of experiences among young people coming from
different Unesco sites
Modena Cathedral, Doorway of the Princes Archivolt. Details of a sculptor and a blacksmith