Decision : 29 COM 8B.36
Nominations of Cultural Properties to the World Heritage List (Plantin-Moretus Museum)
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Documents WHC-05/29.COM/8B, WHC-05/29.COM/8B.Add 2 and WHC-05/29.COM/INF.8B.1,
2. Inscribes the Plantin-Moretus Museum (Belgium) provided that its title is changed to: "Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex", on the World Heritage List on the basis of cultural criteria (ii), (iii), (iv) and (vi):
Criterion (ii): Through the publications of the Officina Plantiniana, the Plantin-Moretus complex is a testimony to the major role played by this important centre of 16th century European humanism in the development of science and culture.
Criterion (iii): Considered as an integral part of the Memory of the World (UNESCO, 2001), the Plantinian Archives, including the business archives of the Officina, the books of commercial accounts and the correspondence with a number of world-renowned scholars and humanists, provide an outstanding testimony to a cultural tradition of the first importance.
Criterion (iv): As an outstanding example of the relationship between the living environment of a family during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries, the world of work and the world of commerce, the Plantin-Moretus Complex is of unrivalled Documentary value relating to significant periods of European history: the Renaissance, the Baroque era and Classicism.
Criterion (vi): The Plantin-Moretus complex is tangibly associated with ideas, beliefs, technologies and literary and artistic works of outstanding universal significance.
3. Recommends that concerning the construction of a new store room for the archives, a solution is found which is compatible with the authenticity of the whole Mansion and Workshops complex.
Original Decision Document