By Catherine Hickley

June 25 (Bloomberg) -- Dresden’s Elbe Valley, a landscape of palaces, villas, vineyards and parks, was struck off a United Nations list of World Heritage sites because of plans to build a four-lane bridge across the river.

After today’s meeting in Seville, Spain, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization said in a press release that the bridge meant the site “failed to keep its outstanding universal value.” It is only the second time that Unesco has stripped a site of its World Heritage label.

“This is a black day for Dresden and for German culture,” Construction Minister Wolfgang Tiefensee, a member of the Social Democratic Party, said in a statement. “I regret very much that it came to this. There was more than enough time for Saxony and the city of Dresden to find a compromise.”

The Unesco World Heritage List includes 878 sites, among them China’s Great Wall, the historic centers of Vienna and Prague, the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. The 18-kilometer-long Elbe Valley was added to the World Heritage in Danger List in 2006, along with such sites as the ancient city of Ashur in Iraq and medieval monuments in Kosovo.

Unesco describes the Elbe Valley as “an outstanding cultural landscape, an ensemble that integrates the celebrated baroque setting and suburban garden city into an artistic whole within the river valley.”

Protests

Construction started in November 2007 on the bridge, known as the Waldschloesschenbruecke, after months of protests and legal challenges failed to persuade the Christian Democrat-led coalition that governs the state of Saxony to change its plans.

The Dresden city government and Saxony argue that a 2005 referendum in favor of the bridge takes legal precedence over Unesco’s view. During today’s debate in Seville, Dresden Mayor Helma Orosz tried to persuade Unesco officials to allow the Elbe Valley to keep its title despite the bridge.

“I hoped until the end that the decision would be postponed until the bridge is finished,” Orosz said in a statement. “The committee has made clear in its conclusion that Dresden has the option of applying for the World Heritage title again. With this option, there are new opportunities for Dresden. It is my task to find a way forward.”

Conservationists such as the Gruene Liga network say the bridge will introduce noise and fumes into the 18th- and 19th- century cultural and natural landscape, as well as spoil the view of the old city from the valley’s meadows.

‘Scandal’

“This whole scandal for Dresden and Germany could have been avoided if the city and the state had been willing to compromise,” Achim Weber, the Saxony representative of the Gruene Liga, said in a telephone interview after today’s decision.

A week ago, Weber stood on a platform overlooking the construction site, admiring a vista of Dresden’s old bridges and towers and the Elbe’s grassy banks. That view will be blocked by the bridge. Digging has started on the tunnels that will feed traffic onto the bridge, which is set for completion in 2011.

“People haven’t built on these banks for centuries, and with good reason,” he said. “The bridge cuts up this landscape. We are continuing to fight for a tunnel instead. The bridge isn’t there yet.”

Weber estimates that the cost of replacing the bridge with a tunnel would be between 10 million euros ($14 million) and 20 million euros.

“The reputation of Dresden and Germany should be worth it,” he said.

Tunnel Option

Weber has organized regular protests against the bridge and plans a demonstration in Dresden later today. Bridge opponents say that citizens didn’t know the World Heritage title was at stake when the 2005 referendum took place and that the people of Dresden were never offered the option of a tunnel instead.

“It is more than regrettable that the participants were not capable of finding a solution,” German Culture Minister Bernd Neumann said in a statement sent by e-mail. “According to the constitution, states and municipalities are responsible for conserving monuments and heritage. The government, therefore, could not have any direct influence on this bridge project, which was favored by both the state of Saxony and the city.”

The first site to be delisted by Unesco was Oman’s Arabian Oryx Sanctuary, which lost its heritage status in 2007 after the government decided to reduce the size of the protected area by 90 percent to drill for oil. The oryx population had dwindled to 65 from 450 because of poaching and habitat degradation.

To contact the reporter on the story: Catherine Hickley in Berlin at chickley@bloomberg.net.