While we might not think it rivals the likes of Skellig Michael in terms of history or culture, Benidorm is making a bid for UNESCO World Heritage status.
The Costa Blanca city, synonymous with the package holiday and all-day full-English breakfasts, is hoping the UN’s cultural branch will recognise it as a city of “exceptional universal value” and as a world leader in “sustainability and respect for natural resources.”
The sun-holiday town has exploded from a sleepy fishing village of 3,000 people in the 1960s to become a merry-making metropolis, with skyscraping apartment blocks and hotels catering to 1.7m tourists per year. This massive expansion has seen Benidorm be dubbed the 'Dubai of Spain'.
In order to be considered for UNESCO World Heritage status, only one of the following 10 criteria must be met:
- Represent a masterpiece of human creative genius
- Exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design
- bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared
- Be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history
- Be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change
- Be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance.
- Contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance
- Be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features
- Be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals
- contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation
The group spearheading Benidorm’s campaign believes the city meets six of the 10.
On this evening’s The Right Hook, guest-host Shane Coleman will be talking about Benidorm’s cultural legacy. He’ll be speaking to Dave Rowland, a British broadcaster with Cool FM Radio Spain, who’s lived in the city for 20 years, and who says its charms and cultural qualities have been ignored by the media for years.
Tune in live at 6pm, or listen back to the podcasts here.
More than 1,000 places and cultural traditions from more than 160 countries have received the much-coveted heritage from UNESCO, and if Benidorm succeeds, it certainly won’t be the most unusual. Here are 15 of the strangest things to claim the title:
