3440 GERMANY (Saxony-Anhalt) - The Old Mint in Stolberg

One of the most beautiful half-timbered houses of Stolberg, built in 1535 as a mint workshop, is now the home of the city's Old Mint Museum. Unique in the German-speaking countries of Europe is the almost fully preserved workshop, complete with equipment from the 18th century. The core exhibition is rounded out with recreated functional models as well a look into the history of coins and coinage in Stolberg and Central Germany. The third floor is dedicated to the town history, particularly of the 18th century, as well as to the theologian and peasant leader Thomas Müntzer, who was born in Stolberg in 1489.

3302 ETHIOPIA (Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region) - Gurage Landscape

Gurage is a zone named for the Gurage people, an Habesha Ethiosemitic-speaking ethnic group whose homeland lies in this zone. Most parts of this area are heavily eroded, which required farmers to protect their enset fields with stone and soil bunds. During the 1930s, about 20% of the land in Gurage was covered with natural forests, which has since been almost completely cut down. According to the historian Paul B. Henze, the Gurage people origins are explained by traditions of a military expedition to the south during the last years of the Kingdom of Aksum, which left military colonies that eventually became isolated from both northern Ethiopia and each other.

2978 GERMANY (Hesse) - Half-timbered houses in Rotenburg an der Fulda

Located south of the Stölzinger Gebirge (range), in the narrowest part of the Fulda valley, Rotenburg an der Fulda is a romantic, medieval town in the charming garden, surrounded by forests. The settlement on the Fulda's left bank, today’s Altstadt (Old Town), had its first documentary mention as a town in 1248. A great fire destroyed it in 1478 along with the newly built castle. In 1615, 57 houses burnt down in Braach, and in the Thirty Years' War, in 1637, the town and the town hall burnt.

2800 FRANCE (New Aquitaine) - At the well sweep

2800 Landes (Gascogne) - At the well sweep

A well sweep is an device used to bring water up from a well. The materials needed to construct it are wooden poles and a heavy weight of stone or clay. A vertical post, with a Y notch at the top, is mounted near the well hole. On the post is placed a horizontal pole, or sweep, which has the weight at one end, and a long, thin pole with an attached bucket at the other. A person would pull the thin pole and bucket down into the well and fill it with water, and the sweep’s weight would then lift the bucket up.

2624 BENIN - Peoples of Benin and their houses

About 42 African ethnic groups live in Benin. They settled in this teritory at different times and also migrated within the country. Even if they have some common features in the way of life, because sharing the same area, there are many differences, some of them essential. For instance, in southern Benin are common the rectangular huts with sloping roofs of palm or straw thatch, along the coastal lagoons houses are often built on stilts, and in northern Benin dwellings are round, with a conical roof of thatch.

2612, 2860 UNITED STATES (New Mexico) - Taos Pueblo (UNESCO WHS)

2612 Puebloan woman baking bread at Taos Pueblo

Situated in the valley of Rio Pueblo de Taos, a small tributary of the Rio Grande, at about 1.6km north of the modern city of Taos, Taos Pueblo is an ancient pueblo belonging to a Tiwa-speaking Native American tribe of Puebloan people. It is a member of the Eight Northern Pueblos, and the Taos community is known for being one of the most private, secretive, and conservative pueblos. A reservation of 38,000ha is attached to the pueblo, and about 4,500 people live in this area.

2860 A Puebloan woman

This settlement, consisting of ceremonial buildings and facilities, and multi-storey adobe dwellings built in terraced tiers, exemplifies the living culture of a group of present-day Pueblo Indian people. As one of a series of settlements established in the late 13th and early 14th centuries that have survived, it represents a significant stage in the history of urban, community and cultural life in this region. It has been continuously inhabited and is the largest of these Pueblos that still exist.

2604 CHINA (Inner Mongolia) - Mongolian yurts

2604 Yurts in Inner Mongolia in 1986

"...They [the Mongols] have circular houses made of wood and covered with felt, which they carry about with them on four-wheeled wagons wherever they go. For the framework of rods is so neatly and skillfully constructed that it is light to carry. And every time they unfold their house and set it up, the door is always facing south." Even though seven centuries have passed since Marco Polo wrote the above, the Mongols still live in such dwellings, whether they live in Mongolia, in China (Inner Mongolia) or in Russia.

1727, 2548 ROMANIA (Harghita) - Cristuru Secuiesc

2548 Cristuru Secuiesc - 1. The Unitarian School; 2. The town hall;
3. The Petõfi Sándor statue; 5. The Molnár István Museum

Posted on 07.07.2015, 14.05.2016
Located in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Cristuru Secuiesc (Székelykeresztúr) is the most significant economical-organizational and educational center of the Cristuru basin. Among the main sights of the town are the old building of the Unitarian School (built in late Baroque style on the turning of the 17-18th centuries), the town hall, the bronze statue of Petõfi Sándor (made by András Márkos in 1971), and the Molnár István Museum.

1727 Cristuru Secuiesc - The Molnár István Museum

 

The Molnár István Museum and open-air ethnographic section are one of the most significant country museums of the region. The exhibits include archaeological finds from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, pottery; ethnography items: folk technical installations; mineralogy items; local fauna specimens, and a herbarium. Established in the building of the former Casino in 1946, it was reorganized in 1960. Molnár István (1910-1997) was a Hungarian teacher, ethnographer and curator.

2531 PANAMA - Kuna people

The Kuna, also known as Cuna or Guna, are an indigenous people of Panama and Colombia. In the Kuna language, they call themselves Dule or Tule, meaning "people", and the name of the language in Kuna is Dulegaya, literally "people-mouth". The most Kunas live on small islands off the coast of the comarca of Kuna Yala known as the San Blas Islands. The other two Kuna comarcas in Panama are Kuna de Madugandí and Kuna de Wargandí.

1558, 2484 NETHERLANDS (Aruba) - Cunucu traditional houses

1558 A Cunuc traditional house in Aruba (1)

In Papiamento (the language derived from African and Portuguese languages, with some other influences, which is the most widely spoken language on ABC islands), Cunucu means "countryside" or "small plantation". In earlier days, the walls of the houses in Aruba were built from stone, without the use of mortar, the coral rocks being placed to a perfect fit. Often was used caliche, a crusty calcium substance found in the southeast hills of the island.

2484 A Cunuc traditional house in Aruba (2)

Slanting roofs allowed the heat to rise, while windows were kept small to keep in the cool. Although in nowadays concrete have replaced the older materials, the design has retained many basic elements found in the traditional houses, while adding other features such as windows which became longer though still narrow and comprised wooden louvers, introduction of patios and brightly tiled roofs as well as elaborate ornamentation for roofs , balconies and entrances.

2418 SENEGAL - Bassari (Aliyan) people

2418 Youg Bassari girls, granaries of millet and Flamboyant tree

The Bassari (A-liyan, Boin, Tenda Boeni) people are agro-pastoral Senegambian Tenda-speaking people of larger Niger-Congo language family living in West African countries of Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau and Gambia. Most of them are concentrated on either side of the Senegal-Guinea border southwest of Kedougou. Currently Bassari population is estimated to be about 38,000, with 16,000 people living in Senegal, 15,500 in Guinea, 500 in Guinea Bissau and some small numbers scattered in the Gambia and Mauritania.

2396 UNITED STATES (American Samoa) - The Alao village on Tutuila island

Tutuila is the largest and the main island of American Samoa, in the archipelago of Samoan Islands, and hosts Pago Pago, the capital of this unincorporated territory of the United States. Its land expanse (33 km in length and 5km in width) is about 68% of the total land area of American Samoa and with 56,000 people accounts for 95% of its population. The mountainous regions of the island, its beaches, coral reefs, WWII relics, and the sporting activities such as scuba diving, snorkeling and hiking activities make it attractive to tourists.

2222 GERMANY (Schleswig-Holstein) - A thatched roof cottage in Sieseby

The Schlei (Danish: Slien) is a narrow inlet of the Baltic Sea, which stretches for approximately 32km from the Baltic near Kappeln to the city of Schleswig, and separates the Angeln peninsula to the north from the Schwansen peninsula to the south. The important Viking settlement of Hedeby was located at the head of the firth (fjord), but was later abandoned in favor of the city of Schleswig. Sieseby is one of the villages which form Thumby (Danish: Tumby), a municipality located along the Schlei.

1621 TOGO - Koutammakou, the Land of the Batammariba (UNESCO WHS)

The Koutammakou landscape is home to the Batammariba (or Tammari people, also known as Somba) whose remarkable mud tower-houses (takienta) have come to be seen as a symbol of Togo. In this landscape, nature is strongly associated with the rituals and beliefs of society. Many of the buildings are two storeys high and those with granaries feature an almost spherical form above a cylindrical base. Some of the buildings have flat roofs, others have conical thatched roofs.

1504 INDONESIA (Sumatra) - Bawomataluo Site (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Nias is a rugged island, the largest of the 131 chain parallel to the Sumatran coast. The native ethnic group which lives on the island bear the same name. The Nias people are a community that still actively living within the norms and practices of the indigenous culture. Their customary law is generally referred to as fondrakö, which regulates all aspects of life from birth to death. The caste system is also recognized in their society, whereby the highest level out of the 12 levels in the Nias caste system is Balugu. Niassan society is highly stratified and chiefs, particularly in the south of island, had access to a wealth of material resources and human labor. It was with this wealth that the early 20th century saw the chiefs of the isolated island build themselves the grand omo sebua.

1366 UKRAINE (City of Kiev) - A farmstead in Museum of Folk Architecture and Life from Pirogovo

One of the most interesting landmarks of Kiev is the Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, located in Pyrohiv (Pirogov), originally a village, now a neighborhood in the southern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital city. Its construction began in 1971 on a 150-ha site in a forest and park zone, and when completed, it will be the largest such museum in the world. By the summer of 1976 the first part had been opened to visitors.

1205 FRANCE (New Caledonia) - A traditional hut in Maré Island

Maré Island is the second-largest of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. The population of Maré is about 6900, of mainly Melanesian heritage (less than 2% of the population is of European ancestry), more specifically Kanak. The traditional hut is architecturally representative of the Kanak culture, its features representing the organization and lifestyle of the tribes. Fitting perfectly into the landscape, enhanced by neatly trimmed grass and coconut palms, the island hut has lasted through the centuries. It is found everywhere: there are no inhabited places without a hut.

1118 BARBADOS - A traditional chattel house

1118 A traditional chattel house in Barbados

In 1625 Barbados was claimed by England, and the first settlement in the island was founded in 1627 by Henry Powell, who arrived with 80 settlers and 10 slaves (kidnapped or runaway English or Irish youth). In 1640 was introduced the sugarcane from Dutch Brazil, and this completely transformed the society and the economy, Barbados becoming one of the world's biggest sugar industries (in 1660 it generated more trade than all the other English colonies combined).

0348, 0871 SWITZERLAND / AUSTRIA - Prehistoric pile dwellings from the Alps (UNESCO WHS)

0348 SWITZERLAND - Reconstruction of a prehistoric pile dwelling
from Bronze Age at Laténium, Hauterive.

Among the sites included in 2011 by UNESCO in its list of World Heritage Sites is one called Prehistoric Pile dwellings around the Alps, which contains, as say its name, pile-dwelling settlements in and around the Alps, built on the edges of lakes, rivers or wetlands. So far have been identified 937 such sites, of which UNESCO has chosen 111, located in Austria (5), France (11), Germany (18), Italy (19), Slovenia (2), and Switzerland (56).

0871 AUSTRIA - Computer animation of some prehistoric pile dwellings,
which are nowadays on the bottom of the Keutschacher See, Carinthia.

These settlements were built between 5,000 and 500 BC, i.e. during Neolithic and Bronze Age, a period about which we know little, but for which clarification would be an important step in finding our origins as Europeans. For now it is clear that at the end of the Neolithic has occurred a profound transformation, due to the penetration in Europe of a Proto-Indo-European populations wave, named by Marija Gimbutas Kurgan Culture. Equally clear is that these populations, more warlike and technologically superior to the ones found in Europe, were imposed and caused a cultural leap.

0769, 0770 JAPAN (Chūgoku) - Museum of Folkcraft in Kurashiki

Kurashiki is one of Japan's great old merchant towns, located along a scenic canal at the foot of Mount Tsurugata, and its white-walled storehouses escaped WWII largely unscathed, are beautifully preserved and open for exploration. It was the site of clashes between the Taira and Minamoto clans during the Heian period. During the Edo period, when it became an area directly controlled by the shogunate, Kurashiki did heavy trade with the capital in rice, sugar, and other goods, and later, during the Meiji Restoration, it became known for textiles. The old merchant quarter, Bikan historical area, contains many fine examples of 17th century wooden warehouses (kura) painted white with traditional black tiles, along a canal framed with weeping willows and filled with koi. The area has no electric poles in order to make the area more closely resemble the look of the Meiji period.

Museum of Folkcraft in Kurashiki, opened in 1948 as a project of the Okayama Prefecture Folkcrafts Association, is housed in three vintage structures connected by narrow corridors and old stairwells, actually renovated rice storehouses typical of the city. With the striking contrast of its white walls and black roof tiles, one may say the structure itself is an excellent example of Japanese folkcrafts. Inside, some 1,000 old and new works from around the world are on display, including pottery, woven and dyed textiles, gold work, stone carving, woodwork lacquerware, washi paper, bamboocraft and glass work.

Japanese culture is diverse, but despite this, in terms on the interior of the houses, the aesthetic is one of simplicity and minimalism, made with attention to detail and intricacy, in generally based from ideals of Taoism, imported from China. Traditional interiors incorporate natural materials (fine woods, bamboo, silk, rice straw mats, and paper shōji screens), used to keep simplicity in the space that connects to nature. Natural color schemes are used and neutral palettes including black, white, off-white, gray, and brown. The size of rooms can be altered by interior sliding walls or screens, named fusuma. Cupboards built into the wall hide futon, mattresses pulled out before going to bed, allowing more space to be available during the day. To cover the floor are used tatami, rice straw floor mats.