Listed Village

The protection of (national) monuments focuses on safeguarding the architectural character and preserving the authenticity of the materials. In addition, under the 1988 Monuments Act, it is possible to protect areas with a special historical character. This involves preserving the urban or cultural landscape characteristics. Such areas are referred to as protected urban or village landscapes. The law defines protected urban and village landscapes as “groups of immovable properties that are of general interest due to their beauty, their spatial or structural coherence, or their scientific or cultural-historical value, and within which one or more monuments are located.”

The protection of village landscapes and monuments cannot replace one another; rather, they complement each other. A protected village landscape often contains historic buildings, but this does not mean that every building in that area is designated as a (national) historic monument. A protected village landscape is not just about the individual buildings, which represent a certain value; rather, it is about the interrelationship between them and the associated structure or layout, which has cultural-historical significance.