Moravian Church Settlements in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Named UNESCO World Heritage Site

The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has designated the Moravian Church Settlements in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, as a World Heritage Site. According to reports from WFMZ and The Brown and White, the designation was announced on July 26 after a committee meeting in New Delhi, India, where the group approved new additions to the program. The Lehigh University news report gives the same date and location, describing a meeting in India.

The inscription is part of a broader designation. The settlements in Herrnhut, Germany, and Gracehill, Northern Ireland, were added to the list as a single site together with Christiansfeld in Denmark, which was first inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2015. WFMZ notes that Christiansfeld was founded in 1773 and is regarded as the best-preserved example of such a settlement. Lehigh’s report says the settlements joined a list that now includes 1,223 World Heritage Sites worldwide, and that the United States has 26.

WFMZ describes the Bethlehem site in detail. The 1741 Gemeinhaus on Church Street is a National Historic Landmark, which WFMZ calls the only 1700s Gemeinhaus in the world. The site covers 10 acres and includes nine structures, four ruins, and God’s Acre cemetery. The historic district is one of only eight Landmark Districts in Pennsylvania and one of just over 200 in the nation.

Local leaders took part in the process. Mayor Reynolds, who chairs the Bethlehem World Heritage Council and Commission, attended the meeting in New Delhi. Lehigh University President Joseph J. Helble is a member of the Bethlehem World Heritage Commission, which helped prepare a 400-page application for the settlements’ inclusion on the list. According to The Brown and White, the committee meets annually to consider sites that meet its criteria, which it summarizes as the “5Cs”: credibility, conservation, capacity-building, communication and communities.

Lehigh reports that the designation was recognized on a Wednesday with a celebration at the Central Moravian Church Sanctuary, followed by a meeting at City Hall. The reports do not give the exact date of that celebration. Lehigh also notes that World Heritage was established in 1972 by an international treaty.