Cologne cathedral put on UNESCO list of endangered historical sites

Published: 2004-07-07

COLOGNE, Germany (CNS) -- Cologne's gothic cathedral has been placed on UNESCO's list of endangered World Heritage sites over concerns about a planned high-rise complex. Plans to construct five high-rise buildings, some as tall as 400 feet, would interfere with the view of the cathedral's twin 515-foot steeples, UNESCO's World Heritage Committee said in a statement. UNESCO is the acronym for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. "The Cologne Cathedral and its urban landscape are the city's only outstanding cultural heritage elements to have survived World War II," Francesco Bandarin, director of UNESCO's World Heritage Center, said in a statement posted on the committee's Web site. "I sincerely hope that Cologne will not lose an important component of its historical legacy," he said. Cologne's cathedral, constructed in 1248, was added to the World Heritage List in 1996.

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