World Heritage Identification Number: 1404
World Heritage since: 2012
Category: Cultural Heritage
Transboundary Heritage: No
Endangered Heritage: No
Country: 🇨🇦 Canada
Continent: Americas
UNESCO World Region: Europe and North America
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The Landscape of Grand Pré: A Cultural Testimony of Adaptation and Resilience
The Landscape of Grand Pré, located in the southern Minas Basin of Nova Scotia, Canada, stands as a remarkable testament to human resilience, innovation, and cultural preservation. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012, this expansive marshland and archaeological site offers a unique glimpse into the history of the Acadians, their descendants, and the subsequent Planters who adapted to the challenging environmental conditions of the North American Atlantic coast.
More to come…UNESCO Description of the World Heritage Site
Situated in the southern Minas Basin of Nova Scotia, the Grand Pré marshland and archaeological sites constitute a cultural landscape bearing testimony to the development of agricultural farmland using dykes and the aboiteau wooden sluice system, started by the Acadians in the 17th century and further developed and maintained by the Planters and present-day inhabitants. Over 1,300 ha, the cultural landscape encompasses a large expanse of polder farmland and archaeological elements of the towns of Grand Pré and Hortonville, which were built by the Acadians and their successors. The landscape is an exceptional example of the adaptation of the first European settlers to the conditions of the North American Atlantic coast. The site – marked by one of the most extreme tidal ranges in the world, averaging 11.6 m – is also inscribed as a memorial to Acadian way of life and deportation, which started in 1755, known as the Grand Dérangement.
UNESCO Justification of the World Heritage Site
The Landscape of Grand Pré is an outstanding example and enduring model of the human capacity to overcome extraordinary natural challenges and cultural ordeals.
Encyclopedia Record: Grand-Pré, Nova Scotia
Grand-Pré is a rural community in Kings County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Its French name translates to "Great/Large Meadow" and the community lies at the eastern edge of the Annapolis Valley several kilometres east of the town of Wolfville on a peninsula jutting into the Minas Basin surrounded by extensive dyked farm fields, framed by the Gaspereau and Cornwallis Rivers. The community was made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem Evangeline and is today home to the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. On June 30, 2012, the Landscape of Grand-Pré was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.Additional Site Details
Area: 1,323.24 hectares
(vi) — Directly associated with events or living traditions
Coordinates: 45.1183333333 , -64.3072222222
