The Upper Middle Rhine Valley Cultural Landscape World Heritage refers to a cultural landscape on the Middle Rhine that was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on June 27, 2002. The World Heritage area extends from Bingen/Rüdesheim to Koblenz over a length of 67 km along the breakthrough valley of the Rhine through the Rhenish Slate Mountains.
The uniqueness of this cultural landscape is the extraordinary wealth of cultural evidence. The Middle Rhine Valley owes its special appearance, on the one hand, to the natural formation of the river landscape and, on the other hand, to human design. For two millennia it has been one of the most important routes for cultural exchange between the Mediterranean region and northern Europe. Located in the heart of Europe, sometimes a border, sometimes a bridge of cultures, the valley exemplifies the history of the West. With its high-ranking architectural monuments, the vine-covered slopes, its settlements clustered together on narrow banks and the hilltop castles lined up on rocky outcrops, it is considered the epitome of Rhine romanticism. Last but not least, it inspired Heinrich Heine to write his Lorelei song.
As early as 1977, the proposal came up to designate the Middle Rhine Valley as a world heritage site. This was preceded by the signing of the “Convention for the Protection of the World’s Cultural and Natural Heritage” by the Federal Republic of Germany in 1976. The Middle Rhine first appeared on a tentative list from 1984, but then disappeared again after reunification and the creation of the first all-German list in 1992. In 1996, Prime Minister Kurt Beck made the inclusion of the Upper Middle Rhine Valley on the UNESCO World Heritage List a cultural policy goal of the Rhineland-Palatinate state government. In 1998, the Standing Conference of the Education Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany placed the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in sixth place on a new list of suggestions.
On December 19, 2000, the state governments of Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate formally applied for the “Upper Middle Rhine Valley Cultural Landscape” from Bingen/Rüdesheim to Koblenz to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The certificates of recognition were ceremoniously handed over on September 20, 2003 as part of a ceremony in Oberwesel.