The Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth is granting 800,000 kronor to the project “World Heritage Sites in Sweden – places that make a difference”. This is an investment in sustainable place development with the four southernmost World Heritage Sites in Sweden: Grimeton Radio Station, the Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland, the Hanseatic Town of Visby, and the Naval Port of Karlskrona. The project is intended to create ripple effects across World Heritage Sites throughout the country.
– We need to get better at communicating knowledge about what World Heritage Sites are and what they contribute. But also what an untapped resource they are at all levels in our country, not least in the work toward a more sustainable society where World Heritage work can often be seen as exemplary. Says Camilla Lugnet, CEO of the Grimeton World Heritage Foundation, and project manager.
Unique stories and good examples of sustainable place development
A World Heritage Site is a unique cultural or natural historical environment that bears witness to human or Earth’s history. Together, the World Heritage Sites function as a large book where each site represents a chapter and thus contributes its story. Telling the story of the world’s World Heritage Sites is so important that it is included in the World Heritage Convention, which Sweden signed in 1985.
Nordic World Heritage Association forms the World Heritage logo together.
Photo Raphael Stecksén.
The 15 World Heritage Sites in Sweden promote sustainable development through local initiatives that create value for the population and inspire sustainable action. Now begins the work of developing a national place narrative for the World Heritage Sites in Sweden and collecting and highlighting good examples of sustainable place development. The work of the World Heritage Sites will be strengthened at the national level. The national narrative should be able to be woven in at the local level and become part of the World Heritage Sites’ unique place narratives.
– World Heritage is about cross-border collaboration, at all levels and across different areas. Despite all World Heritage Sites having different conditions, the purpose of the sites and our work is the same: to contribute to a better world. So carrying out this project together is not only natural but absolutely crucial. It is together that we can get more people to understand the value of these unique places, whether at the local, regional, or national level. Grimeton will directly benefit from the results in several different contexts going forward, for example in information materials, exhibitions, educational programs, and much more, adds Camilla Lugnet.
The Grimeton World Heritage Foundation is the project owner, and Mörbylånga Municipality (the Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland), Region Gotland (the Hanseatic Town of Visby), and Karlskrona Municipality (the Naval Port of Karlskrona) are collaboration partners in the project and contribute working time.
Grimeton Radio Station is almost 100 years old – and will celebrate 20 years as a UNESCO World Heritage Site this summer. Through the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth’s project, the shared heritage will become even better known.
The participating World Heritage Sites:
Grimeton Radio Station, Varberg is the world’s best place to experience the development of wireless communication, from how the technology looked in its infancy right up to today, as the radio station has never gone silent and is still in use.
The Agricultural Landscape of Southern Öland is the story of how farmers, generation after generation, create a unique agricultural landscape with village rows, fields, meadows, and alvar plains.
The Hanseatic Town of Visby is a fantastic example of a Northern European walled Hanseatic town from the early 1200s. Not only with the ring wall and ruins but also the living town within.
The Naval Port of Karlskrona is the 17th-century king’s grand vision and dream with wide streets and large squares. An outstanding naval town to this day.
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The World Heritage Site Grimeton Radio Station
Just over 100 years ago, inventor Ernst Alexanderson was experimenting on the other side of the Atlantic. What he didn’t know then was that his invention would pave the way for the emergence of wireless society. The technology was installed in nine locations around the world, including on the Swedish west coast in Grimeton. Now Swedes could send a telegram to the USA in under 20 minutes, unlike letters that took several weeks. Something that particularly affected trade relations between the two continents.
In 2004, Grimeton Radio Station was inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List of unique natural and cultural heritage sites worth preserving for the future. This is partly because the station in Grimeton is the only remaining one of its kind that shows what wireless technology looked like in its infancy, but also what it technically made possible for us humans. Today, wireless technology is something we all use and sometimes take for granted, which would not have been possible without advances like the one we can witness in Grimeton. The world’s best place to experience wireless communication. A World Heritage Site with global reach.
