Gracehill Moravian Church Settlement World Heritage Site

Congratulations to Gracehill and the team behind their successful inscription as a new World Heritage Site. Gracehill was inscribed to the World Heritage List at 46COM of the 46th meeting of the World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, in July 2024.

Gracehill Moravian Church Settlement becomes Northern Ireland’s second UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 34th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK. 

The Site was nominated as part of a transnational effort led by the United States to achieve World Heritage Status for Moravian Church Settlements founded in the 18th century, alongside other sites in Christiansfeld in Denmark) Herrnhut, Germany and Bethlehem in the United States. Christiansfeld was originally inscribed as a cultural World Heritage Site in 2015, and is now extended to a transnational WHS along with Herrnhut, Bethlehem and Gracehill.

Each of these settlements exemplifies the Moravian Church’s spiritual, societal, and ethical ideals that aimed at the creation of a religious community and found expression in a distinctive style of town planning and architecture.

Founded in 1759, Gracehill includes distinctive Moravian buildings, including a particular type of congregation building known as Gemeinhaus, a church, choir houses and a cemetery. There is an active congregation present at the site today, who continue Moravian traditions.

Northern Ireland’s other WHS is the Giant’s Causeway.

Image: Original Single Sisters’ House, by Donal McCann Photography.