Quebec City was an appropriate site for the decision today by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO to recognize the Baha’i Shrines in Israel as world cultural heritage sites - appropriate since Montreal architect William Sutherland Maxwell not only designed one of the Shrines but early in his career had also designed the Quebec City landmark Chateau Frontenac tower.
In his outstanding architectural career, Maxwell designed a number of well-known Canadian buildings, including the Saskatchewan Legislative Buildings in Regina and many churches and homes in Montreal. In the 1950s, Maxwell, a leading member of the Baha’i Community of Canada, lived for a time at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa, Israel where he designed the Shrine of the Bab, a building that has become the most recognized symbol of that northern port city in the Holy Land, now visited by thousands and thousands of tourists and Baha’i believers every year.
The Baha’i Community of Canada was thrilled with the news of the decision by the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO, meeting in Quebec City, as many of the community’s 30,000 members have either been on pilgrimage to the shrines or hope to do so in the future.
The Baha’i International Community issued the following press release on learning the news of the decision:
QUEBEC CITY (BWNS) — A United Nations committee meeting here has determined that two Bahá’í shrines in Israel possess “outstanding universal value” and should be considered as part of the cultural heritage of humanity.
The decision today by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee means that the two most sacred sites for Bahá’ís – the resting places of the founders of their religion – join a list of internationally recognized sites like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the Taj Mahal, and Stonehenge.
The World Heritage List also includes places of global religious significance like the Vatican, the Old City of Jerusalem, and the remains of the recently destroyed Bamiyan Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
The Bahá’í shrines are the first sites connected with a religious tradition born in modern times to be added to the list, which is maintained by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The two shrines, one near the recognized heritage site of Old Acre on Israel’s northern coast and the other on Mount Carmel in Haifa, are the resting places of Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb, the founders of the Bahá’í Faith.
Bahá’ís believe that both Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb were messengers of God; their resting places are sites of pilgrimage for a religious community of some five million believers. The shrine of Bahá’u’lláh is the focal point of prayer for Bahá’ís all over the world, giving it an importance comparable to the Western Wall in Jerusalem for Jews and the Kaaba in Mecca for Muslims.
Born in Iran, Baha’u’llah was banished to Acre in what was then the Ottoman Empire, where he died in 1892. The Bab was executed in Iran in 1850, and His remains were later moved to Haifa for burial.
The two shrines are noteworthy for the formal gardens that surround them, blending design elements from many cultures. In addition to Bahá’í pilgrims, they attract hundreds of thousands of visitors and tourists every year.
“We welcome the UNESCO recognition, which highlights the importance of the holy places of a religion that in 150 years has gone from a small group found only in the Middle East to a worldwide community with followers in virtually every country,” said Albert Lincoln, secretary-general of the Baha’i International Community.
“The Bahá’í community is particularly grateful to the government of Israel for putting forward this nomination,” he said.
The World Heritage List was established by UNESCO in 1972 to identify, protect, and preserve places of “cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value.” So far, 184 nations have signed the World Heritage Convention, which defines the general standards of selection for the list, and more than 850 sites have been recognized, including natural areas, such as East Africa’s Serengeti and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
The World Heritage Committee is composed of 21 states that are signatories of the World Heritage Convention. It meets annually in the home country of its chairperson. This year’s chair is Dr. Christina Cameron of Canada, and the gathering in Quebec, which is itself a world heritage site, corresponds with that city’s 400th anniversary celebrations.
For a Feature article with more information about the Baha’i Shrines and additional photographs of the sites, visit the Baha’i World News Service homepage: http://news.bahai.org