BAKU, JULY 7 – Italy’s northeastern Conegliano and Valdobbiadene hills, home to the world-famous sparkling wine Prosecco, have been added to the UNESCO World Heritage list. The UNESCO World Heritage Committee, meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Sunday congratulated Italy and its Prosecco region, located in the Veneto and Friuli region. There are currently 1092 designated sites in 167 countries around the world.
The hills of Prosecco are the 55th Italian World Heritage site. The Italian National Commission for UNESCO resubmitted this year the bid for consideration eleven years after the regions first started the process. The candidacy was intended to reflect the “unique value cultural landscape, expression of manual labour and the ancient tradition of sparkling wine”, which received impetus with the founding, in 1876, of the first school of Italian Wine. The candidacy was launched originally in 2009 by then Minister of Agriculture Luca Zaia, currently the Governor of Regione Veneto, and was endorsed the following year by his successor Maurizio Martina. Prosecco country covers more than 20,000 hectares and 15 municipalities in the Veneto.
Prosecco has become the most popular Italian wine abroad, with its exports seen rising by a record 21% in 2019 in foreign markets. Italy’s foreign ministry and agriculture minister Gian Marco Centinaio welcomed the news, saying “this is a historic day for Veneto and for Italy as a whole.”
Only nine wine-producing areas are on the UNESCO list, including Langhe, Roero and Monferrato, out of total of more than 1,000 worldwide. Within a vast natural theatre almost entirely decorated by vineyards, abbeys, churches and castles, the so called “Prosecco Shire” showcases the presence of a civilisation and material culture that is still very much alive, linked to the cultivation of the vine. At the same time, it is an unique and remarkably intact landscape that still bear the traces of the works of artists of indisputable worth, such as Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano, leading Masters of the Italian Renaissance.
The candidacy was launched originally in 2009 by then Minister of Agriculture Luca Zaia, currently the Governor of Regione Veneto, and was endorsed the following year by his successor Maurizio Martina. Prosecco country covers more than 20,000 hectares and 15 municipalities in the Veneto.
(@OnuItalia)