Great Spa Towns of Europe visits the City of Bath WHS for its General Assembly

The Great Spa Towns of Europe is holding its second General Assembly in the World Heritage City of Bath on 2^nd March 2023. In attendance will be Her Excellency Laura Davies, the Ambassador and Permanent Delegate for the UK Delegation to UNESCO, and James Bridge, the Secretary General and CEO of the UK National Commission for UNESCO. The incoming chair of the new Great Spa Towns of Europe Intergovernmental Committee, who is also the Head of National Coordination World Heritage Austria, Ruth Pröckl will join other representatives of the seven State Parties which are the national representative of the seven countries of the GSTE, including Alexandra Warr the UK’s representative and Head of International Strategy at Historic England.

Bath, which is one of the Great Spa Towns of Europe World Heritage Site, is hosting the General Assembly at the Guildhall. The meeting brings together all the Mayors and Site Managers from the eleven towns which make up the Great Spa Towns of Europe (GSTE), as well as Chiara Ronchini, who took up her new role as Secretary General of the GSTE just two weeks ago.

The Great Spa Towns of Europe is a Serial Transnational World Heritage Site, comprising 11 famous historic thermal spa towns and cities in seven countries. The site was inscribed on the World Heritage List at the extended 44^th World Heritage Committee meeting in Fuzhou, China  on 24^th July 2021. The Great Spa Towns of Europe are in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom and represent a unique cultural phenomenon which reached its height in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, as well as a particular urban type and form which deserves global recognition as a phenomenon which helped to shape Europe.