Archaeologically protected areas represent 1.3% of Swiss territory.
Keystone
The number of protected historic monuments in Switzerland has risen sharply. In 2022, there were close to 91,000 of them, 21% more than in 2016, said the Federal Statistical Office on Monday.
The increase mainly concerns buildings of local importance (31%), and to a lesser extent those of regional importance (15%).
+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox
In all, protected monuments account for around 5% of the country’s building inventory, while archaeologically protected areas represent 1.3% of the national territory. Switzerland has 4,092 objects of national importance in the fields of historic monuments and archaeology.
+ Preserving and restoring historic Swiss chalets in Canada
In total, the statistical office identified 303,482 historic monuments across the country (12%): buildings, bridges, fountains and statues of historical, scientific or artistic interest that are included in cantonal and municipal inventories.
Archeological sites double in surface area
The number of archaeological sites rose by 27%, to reach 53,000. Around a quarter of these (12,651) are protected by law.
+ Swiss foundation helps safeguard historic buildings in Beirut
As for the archaeological perimetres defined by the cantons (areas with archaeological potential), their number increased by 71% to 17,304, while their surface area more than doubled, to 86,419 hectares (+104%), said the statistical office.
These various increases reflect the pressure posed by new construction and increased efforts to safeguard architectural heritage. But they also reflect changes in the census method, said the statistical office.
Translated from French with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
