Jan-Willem Profile
Every now and then, I like to learn about the world just by seeing it :) But no big fan of long flights, so it's mostly done by road tripping.
Recent Reviews Jan-Willem
Cathedral of Gurk (T)
Jan-Willem Netherlands - 16-Dec-24
We visited the Burg Hochosterwitz (also TWHS) and the Dom of Gurk by taking a little detour between Graz and the Hohe Tauern park. Gurk is a small town with a huge church that held the episcopal seat of Carinthia until the late 18th century. In the long list of all sorts of churches that are on the WHS list, this one might not blow away everybody at first sight, like some do. But it does have some nice historic features and art work. However, I doubt that this, combined with being the largest Romanesque building in Austria, is enough to become a WHS. It has been on the tentative list for 30 years now and I wouldn’t know what would have to change to get it listed.
Read OnAtapuerca
Jan-Willem Netherlands - 01-Nov-24
The last reviews date already from some years ago, so I thought: ‘why not add a new impression?’, because I was very lucky to have a different way to enjoy the excavation sites just a month ago. In a descriptive way, I don’t think that there is much to add to the earlier reviews, but it is probably good to emphasize that work continues each summer and important findings still occur almost every year, underlining or probably even strengthening the OUV of the site. See for example a press release from this summer: https://www.labrujulaverde.com/en/2024/07/new-remains-of-850000-years-old-homo-antecessor-at-atapuerca/.
Read OnAncares - Somiedo (T)
Jan-Willem Netherlands - 19-Oct-24
I hesitated a bit before writing this contribution, because I do not have a lot to tell. And I’m only doing it, because there’s no other review for this TWHS, yet.
My friends and I stayed in Oviedo and decided to spend a day in the country. We drove by car to Pola de Somiedo, hoping to do some hiking in the area and, who knows, spot a bear! It was about an hour and half driving. I read somewhere else on the web that ‘The park is one of Spain's most beautiful and rugged nature reserves.’ and with what I’ve seen of Spain so far, that is probably true. Just driving through the valleys with their steep, rocky slopes – and some historic sites and bridges along the way - was a treat.
Read OnKuressaare Fortress (T)
Jan-Willem Netherlands - 23-Aug-24
Kuressaara Fortress (or Episcopal Castle) is a well-restored fortress outside the lovely town of Kuressaara. If I understand well, even though many restorations have taken place, the basic structure still goes back to medieval times and that’s part of what gives it its historic value (but do correct me when I’m mistaken).
When we visited in 2011, work on the outer walls was very much in progress (photo), but looking at recent pictures on internet and Roman’s picture in the header of this THWS, that seems to have been completed by now. It’s an impressive fortress on the one hand, but to my personal taste also a bit ‘clean’ and not very adventurous to see. I didn’t really feel and smell its history, like I got e.g. from the walls of Tallinn. And other sites on the Saaremaa island left deeper memories, such as the WWII memorial sites, the spot of the lighthouse on the most southern tip, and the Kaali impact crater
Read OnEocene Marine Biodiversity of the Alpone Valley (T)
Jan-Willem Netherlands - 22-Jul-24
Originally planned for 2020, you can guess why we had to postpone our road trip through Northern Italy to 2021. But that gave us the opportunity to add the new TWHS Eocene Marine Biodiversity of the Alpone Valley to our itinerary.
I can’t tell you how many of the 39 fossil deposit sites can be visited or are even worth seeing. But it’s certainly true that there is a very lovely, well-preserved fossil fish and plant collection to see and you find this not down in the valley, but all the way up the hill in the small Museo Dei Fossili in the village of Bolca. In Summer, especially in August, you can also visit the nearby Pesciara mine, “the fish bowl”. Getting to the mine does include a hike of little over 1 km.
Read OnProfile Data
- Name
- Jan-Willem
- Country
- Netherlands
Recently Visited WHS
- Update 19.11.24
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9 Countries Complete
Austria . Cyprus . Estonia . Holy See . Luxembourg . Moldova . Netherlands . San Marino . Singapore .Visited TWHS
- Abbey of Kremsmünster (T)
- Alpine and pre-alpine meadow and marsh landscapes (T)
- Amalienborg and its district (T)
- Ancares - Somiedo (T)
- Ancient Cities of Lycian Civilization (T)
- Ancient City of Kaunos (T)
- Archaeological Site of Priene (T)
- Bird Migration Routes (T)
- Brooklyn Bridge (T)
- Bulwarked Frontier Fortifications (T)
- California Current Conservation Complex (T)
- Cathedral of Gurk (T)
- Central Park (T)
- Centre ancien de Sarlat (T)
- Citadel of Alessandria (T)
- Cité de Carcassonne et ses châteaux sentinelles de montagne (T)
- Cittadella (Victoria - Gozo) (T)
- Coastal Cliffs (T)
- Cultural Landscape of Innsbruck-Nordkette/Karwendel (T)
- Diocletian's Palace and the Historical Nucleus of Split (extension) (T)
- Domaine de Fontainebleau : château, jardins, parc et forêt (T)
- Dreams in Stone - the palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee (T)
- Eglises byzantines et post-byzantines de Curtea de Arges (T)
- El Ferrol of the Illustration Historical Heritage (T)
- Eocene Marine Biodiversity of the Alpone Valley (T)
- Fishpond Network in the Trebon Basin (T)
- Former Communist Prisons in Romania (T)
- Großglockner High Alpine Road / Großglockner Hochalpenstraße (T)
- Group of Monuments at Mandu, Madhya Pradesh (T)
- Group of Mozarabic buildings on the Iberian Peninsula (T)
- Hala Sultan Tekke and the Larnaka Salt Lake Complex (T)
- Hall in Tyrol - The Mint (T)
- Historical Lisbon, Global City (T)
- Hochosterwitz Castle (T)
- Hoge Kempen Rural - Industrial Transition Landscape (T)
- Iconic Riverfront of the Historic City of Varanasi (T)
- Iron Trail with Erzberg and the old town of Steyr (T)
- Kekova (T)
- Knights Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta (T)
- Kuressaare Fortress (T)
- L'église de Densus (T)
- La Camargue (T)
- La Rioja and Rioja Alavesa Vine and Wine Cultural Landscape (T)
- Lake Maggiore and Lake D'Orta lakelands (T)
- Le noyau historique de la ville d'Alba Julia (T)
- Le noyau historique ou la 'Cuve' de Gand, et les deux abbayes qui sont à son origine (T)
- Le plateau des Hautes-Fagnes (T)
- Les citadelles mosanes (T)
- Les Plages du Débarquement, Normandie, 1944 (T)
- Les villes antiques de la Narbonnaise et leur territoire: Nimes, Arles, Glanum, aqueducs, via Domitia (T)
- Les villes bastionnées des Pays-Bas du nord-ouest de l'Europe (T)
- Levadas of Madeira Island (T)
- Massif du Mont Blanc (T)
- Massif du Mont-Blanc (T)
- Massif du Retezat (T)
- Mdina (Citta Vecchia) (T)
- Mesta Livestock trails (T)
- Mining Historical Heritage (T)
- Mývatn and Laxá (T)
- National Park Hohe Tauern (T)
- Natural Reserves of Tatras Mountain (T)
- Pharaonic temples in Upper Egypt from the Ptolemaic and Roman periods (T)
- Plantations in West Curacao (T)
- Pombaline Lisbon (T)
- Primošten Vineyards (T)
- Princely religious foundations in Wallachia and Moldavia (T)
- Qawra/Dwejra (T)
- Romanesque Cultural Enclave in the North of Castile-Leon and the South of Cantabria (T)
- Route of Magellan (T)
- Rundāle Palace Ensemble with a Garden and Forest Park (T)
- Seljuk Caravanserais on the route from Denizli to Dogubeyazit (T)
- Sinpetru (site paleontologique) (T)
- Site of the Schöningen Spears – Humans and hunting 300,000 years ago (T)
- Sites of Globalization (T)
- The cultural landscape of the Benedictine settlements in medieval Italy (T)
- The Dunejec River Gorge in the Pieniny Mountains (T)
- The Historic Centre of Sibiu and its Ensemble of Squares (T)
- The historic ensemble of Orchha (T)
- The Karlstejn Castle (T)
- The Laponian Area - Tysfjord, the fjord of Hellemobotn and Rago (T)
- The Marble Basin of Carrara (T)
- The Mediterranean Facet of the Pyrenees (France-Spain) (T)
- The Old Town of Jakarta (T)
- The Ribeira Sacra, Lugo and Orense (T)
- The Theatre and Aqueducts of the Ancient City of Aspendos (T)
- The Turf House Tradition (T)
- Thingvellir National Park (T)
- Trakai Historical National Park (T)
- Troodos, Mt.Olympus (T)
- Via Francigena in Italy (T)
- Volterra: Historical City and Cultural Landscape (T)
- Wooded meadows (Laelatu, Kalli-Nedrema, Mäepea, Allika, Tagamoisa, Loode, Koiva, Halliste) (T)