Bethlehem’s Moravian Church Settlements Recognized as World Heritage Site

World Heritage was established in 1972 by an international treaty to “encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity.”

In addition to Bethlehem’s Moravian settlement, settlements in Herrnhut, Germany and Gracehill in Northern Ireland were also added to the World Heritage list. They join Christiansfeld in Denmark (inscribed in 2015) as a single World Heritage Site that represents the worldwide influence of the Moravian Church.

There are now 26 World Heritage Sites across the United States. Pennsylvania’s other sites are Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater in the Mill Run section of Stewart Township, about 70 miles southeast of Pittsburgh.

A Global Opportunity

Cheryl Matherly, vice president and vice provost for International Affairs, attended Wednesday’s celebration and is excited to see how the World Heritage designation will bring the Bethlehem story to a global audience and create opportunities for community members such as Lehigh faculty, staff and students.

“I believe sometimes we tend to think about things that are global as not being relevant to what’s here in our own community, and we are reminded today that is absolutely not true,” Matherly said. “In this case, the Bethlehem story, and by extension the Lehigh story as part of that community, are part of a global story as well.”

Lehigh has benefited from connections made through Bethlehem’s World Heritage efforts, Matherly said. In May 2023, a 45-person delegation from Germany visited Bethlehem to honor 300 years of Herrnhut in Saxony – the birthplace of the modern Moravian Church. Capping off the visit, Lehigh signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing a partnership with the Technische Universität Dresden, creating opportunities for joint research and publications, and to facilitate academic and student exchanges.

Lehigh also has another Saxony connection.

Asa Packer, in the decade before he established Lehigh, had visited Saxony to study the mining and manufacturing techniques used there. He was impressed by what he saw in Saxony and believed many of the region’s manufacturing and engineering practices could be applied in the United States. When Packer established Lehigh, he encouraged a curriculum focused on engineering and science to train graduates who could lead economic growth and innovation in the Lehigh Valley.

Bethlehem’s Road to the World Heritage List

Moravian immigrants founded Bethlehem in 1741 when they purchased a 500-acre tract of land at the confluence of the Monocacy Creek and Lehigh River. The current-day Bethlehem settlement preserves some of the most important sites related to the Moravians in the New World and is significant as an outstanding example of Moravian architecture and town planning, according to Bethlehem officials.

The site spans 10 acres in the heart of Downtown Bethlehem. It includes nine structures, four ruins and God’s Acre cemetery, all within the already designated Historic Moravian Bethlehem National Historic Landmark District.

The World Heritage designation is expected to significantly boost cultural tourism to Bethlehem, benefiting the local economy. A transnational inscription event will be held this October with a community celebration planned for the spring.

The designation is the result of a decades-long undertaking that included Bethlehem area Moravians, Central Moravian Church, City of Bethlehem, Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites and Moravian University.

“It will be a wonderful help to the community to see this as part of a worldwide diaspora. The Moravians took their spirituality, diversity and education wherever they went around the world,” said Charlene Donchez Mowers, senior advisor and historian for the Bethlehem World Heritage Council and Commission.

Donchez Mowers led the effort to get Bethlehem’s Moravian Church Settlements on the World Heritage list.

It started in 2002 when UNESCO representatives and other historical preservation advocates visited Bethlehem. Over the years there were several international conferences and the establishment of a transnational working group representing Bethlehem, Gracehill, Herrnhut and Christiansfeld.

2003: Christiansfeld invited representatives of six historic Moravian communities from Germany, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United Kingdom and United States to participate in the first International Moravian Heritage Network Conference. Participants formed the International Moravian Heritage Network.

2004-2007: Conferences are held in Bethlehem; Cape Agulhas, South Africa, and Gracehill, Northern Ireland.

2012: Historic Moravian Bethlehem was designated a National Historic Landmark District.

2016: The district was named to the United States’ tentative list of sites for potential World Heritage Site nomination.

2017-2018: Then-Bethlehem Mayor Bob Donchez (no relation to Charlene Donchez Mowers) established a transnational working group, including members of the other Moravian sites. They start holding monthly online meetings.

2021: Representatives from the four Moravian sites of Christiansfeld, Gracehill, Herrnhut and Bethlehem met in Bethlehem and signed a voluntary association agreement.

2022: Moravian Church Settlements became the first transnational, serial nomination to the World Heritage List by the U.S.

2023: A 400-page application created by the working group and reviewed by the four Moravian sites outlined why they deserved World Heritage status. The application was submitted to the World Heritage Committee that same year.

July 26, 2024 UNESCO added the settlements during the World Heritage Committee Meeting in New Delhi, India.