UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Switzerland

13 June 2022

By adopting the convention in 1972, UNESCO tasked itself with preserving cultural and natural sites of exceptional universal value for future generations. More than 1,100 sites are now recognised as world heritage sites. Switzerland was one of the first signatories in 1975.

Switzerland is home to 13 sites on the World Heritage List, including nine cultural ones:

The Architectural Work of Le Corbusier, the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps , the Rhaetian Railway in the Albula/Bernina Landscapes, La Chaux-de-Fonds / Le Locle, Watchmaking Town Planning , the Lavaux, Vineyard Terraces, the three Castles, Defensive Wall and Ramparts of Bellinzona, the Old City of Bern, the Benedictine Convent of St John at Müstair and the Abbey of St Gall

The Federal Office of Culture is responsible for all these sites.

The Federal Office for the Environment is responsible for the natural sites of the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch (2001), Monte San Giorgio (2003), the Swiss Tectonic Area Sardona (2008) and the Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe (2021).