Platinum Plantain Moretus Museum- The audio tour is the standard by which I judge every other site I visit. No site has done as much to interpret and present its importance as well as this one; made what I thought would be just some average regional museum into a highlight of the World Heritage list.
Gold Varberg Radio Station – Excellent new visitors centre, beautifully designed to look modern and complement the main structure. World Heritage symbols everywhere! The guided tour really explained how the whole system functioned but also why it is important. Tanum rock carvings – Museum, visitors centre and Bronze Age farm were of a really good quality. The guide stationed at Vitlycke carvings was excellent at describing what we were seeing and helping to interpret them. But also he was great at explaining different interpretations, and how they have been shaped by different philosophies in modern thinking. The information was accessible but not dumbed down. Jelling Mounds – really good on site museum that helps explain the site and its significance. Also displaying painted copies of the stones really bought them to life for me. Rietveld Schröderhuis – the (expensive) tour I went on was very good at explaining the context of the architecture and highlighting the ingenious parts of its design. (Obviously I am keen on northern European presentation techniques, like I said this is subjective)
Silver Vicenza – There are maps everywhere on the street, every building that is part of the World Heritage site has an explanation board outside in 3 languages. The tourist information centre had maps showing all the important sites and had walking routes mapped out on it. Třebic – really not the most astounding of sites, in fact it is pretty dull, however there are maps and notice boards at all the key points and the TIC had lots of booklets on the WHS and the surrounding ones. My experience of the Czech WHS was that they really embrace their place on the list and this was the best of the lot at doing it. Bru na Boynne (Bend of the Boynne Neolithic sites) – The restoration of the mounds may be controversial, but the management of the visitor experience is very good. The visitor centre was nice and keeping the mounds in a 'remote' setting helps with the understanding of them. Bauhaus – I think I am biased on this as it is a bit of a specialism of mine, but the tour (in German only) allowed a really hands on experience of the building, this highlighted its functionality which is one of the most important things about its inscription on the list. Tito Bustillo (Northern Spanish cave art)- The nuances of the tour were a little lost on me as my Spanish is poor, however the guide was still able to draw a gasp from me when showing the main set of paintings and I was able to understand what was being described through the movement of the torch light.
Bronze Santa Maria delle Grazie/ Last supper – it is a pretty tough thing to keep this painting in a good condition so it deserves credit for trying its best. Also the audio tour was pretty good at describing the painting in detail Big Pit (Blaenavon) – About the only UK site that seems able to present its industrial heritage in a decent manner, and explain why it is universally significant. Cahokia mounds – The visitor centre looks a little dated now but it was still a good base. The guided tour was on a cassette with a photocopied map so pretty outmoded as well, but still it helped explain the significance of the site. Also good for having a UNESCO flag flying next to an American flag. Hypogeuim Malta – limited access but it is well presented and a fairly decent context given
Meltwaterfalls special award for being so nice: Messel Fossil Pit It was closed for the winter when I accidentally turned up. The academics inside opened up the temporary exhibition centre for us, put on a video, gave us some free books and coffee then drove us back to the station after we had a look around. Really was very nice and certainly not expected. |