Vietnam, Hué Emperor urban conservation of World Heritage

Venice carnival

 The Carnival of Venice  is an annual festival, held in Venice, Italy. The Carnival ends with the Christian celebration of Lent, forty days before Easter on Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras), the day before Ash Wednesday. The festival is famed for its elaborate masks.

Castle of Gruyères

The Castle of Gruyères, located in the medieval town of Gruyères, Fribourg, is one of the most famous in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance. The building was built between 1270 and 1282, following the typical square plan of the fortifications in Savoy. In 1849 the castle was sold to the Bovy and Balland families, who used the castle as their summer residency and restored it. The castle was then bought back by the canton of Fribourg in 1938, made into a museum and opened to the public. Since 1993, a foundation ensures the conservation as well as the highlighting of the building and the art collection.

Gripsholm Castle

 Gripsholm Castle is a castle in Mariefred, Södermanland, Sweden. It is located by lake Mälaren in south central Sweden, in the municipality of Strängnäs, about 60 km west of Stockholm. A fortress was built at the location around 1380 by Bo Jonsson Grip, and belonged to his family until the confiscation of mansions and castles by King Gustav I in 1526. The King tore it down, and built a fortified castle with circular corner towers and a wall, for defensive purposes. Of the original medieval fortress, only the façade of a wall remains.
Since Gustav Vasa, Gripsholm has belonged to the Swedish Royal Family and was used as one of their residences until 1713. Between 1563 and 1567, King Eric XIV imprisoned his brother John and his consort Catherine Jagiellon in the castle. This was also one of the castles that King Eric was imprisoned in when John had overthrown him. John's son Sigismund, later the King of Poland and Sweden, was born in the castle on June 20, 1566. Gustav IV Adolf and his family were also imprisoned in the castle in 1809 after his deposition from the throne. He had to sign his abdication document there.

Shirakami-Sanchi beech forest World Heritage Site

Jesuit missions of Chiquitos, Bolivia

The Jesuit Missions of Chiquitos are located in Santa Cruz department in eastern Bolivia. Six of these former missions (all now secular municipalities) collectively were designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1990. Distinguished by a unique fusion of European and Amerindian cultural influences, the missions were founded as reductions or reducciones de indios byJesuits in the 17th and 18th centuries to convert local tribes to Christianity.

The interior region bordering Spanish and Portuguese territories in South America was largely unexplored at the end of the 17th century. Dispatched by the Spanish Crown, Jesuits explored and founded eleven settlements in 76 years in the remote Chiquitania – then known as Chiquitos – on the frontier of Spanish America. They built churches (templos) in a unique and distinct style that combined elements of native and European architecture. The indigenous inhabitants of the missions were taught European music as a means of conversion. The missions were self-sufficient, with thriving economies, and virtually autonomous from the Spanish crown.

Škocjan caves, slovenia, the world heritage

Škocjan Caves (Slovene: Škocjanske jame, Italian: Grotte di San Canziano) is a cave system in Slovenia. Due to its exceptional significance, Škocjan Caves was entered on UNESCO’s list of natural and cultural world heritage sites in 1986. International scientific circles have thus acknowledged the importance of the caves as one of the natural treasures of planet Earth. Ranking among the most important caves in the world, Škocjan Caves represents the most significant underground phenomena in both the Karst regionand Slovenia. Following independence from SFR Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia committed itself to actively protecting the Škocjan Caves area and established the Škocjan Caves Regional Park, Slovenia and its Managing Authority, the Škocjan Caves Park Public Service Agency.

The Szeged Synagogue is a synagogue in Szeged, Hungary

The Szeged Synagogue (Hungarian: Szegedi zsinagóga) is a synagogue in Szeged, Hungary. It is a 1907 building designed by the Jewish Hungarian architect Lipót Baumhorn (1860–1932,), whose work is considered to contain the finest examples of the unique fin de siecle Hungarian blending of Art Nouveau and Historicist styles sometimes known as Magyar style. It served Szeged's large Neolog community.
The building's interior, with its 48.5 meters (159 feet) tall domed ceiling, draws on multiple historical styles to produce its overall Art Nouveau/Moorish Revival style. The rib-like wall above the organ has Gothic origins, while the columns supporting the galleries are Roman.

 
The interior of the great dome, and all of the building's stained glass, are the work of the artist Miksa Róth. The design of the Torah Ark alludes to the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Solomon by using sittimwood from the banks ofNile, the wood called for in the building of the Temple of Solomon in 1 Kings. The hinges are in the shape of the Hysop plant, a plant used in the ancient Temple service.
The Szeged Synagogue is the second largest in Hungary after the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, and the 4th largest in the world.