Brasilia/Mainz - A
UNESCO panel has given the green light to German officials for a controversial bridge near the World Heritage site of the legendary Lorelei rock on the Rhine River, according to the Rhineland-Palatinate state economics ministry Thursday.
The proposed Mittelhrheinbruecke bridge has been the subject of intense debate about whether the structure to be built across the Upper Middle Rhine Valley would violate the prestigious UNESCO listing of the Lorelei rock as a World Heritage site.
The bridge is to be built near Saint Goarshausen. There are neither bridges nor tunnels across the Rhine on the 85-kilometre stretch between Koblenz and Mainz.
The development came during UNESCO's 34th annual world heritage meeting taking place in the Brazilian capital until August 3.
The Rhineland-Palatinate economics ministry said that the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added a stipulation with its approval. The state must submit a detailed plan and development outline in order to hold on to the concession that the bridge can be built.
Critics of the Mittelrheinbruecke warn there will be massive destruction to the environment. The entire Upper Rhine Valley between Bingen and Koblenz has been a World Heritage Site since 2002.
The Lorelei represents the epitome of 18th Century German Romanticism as one of the most famous tourist magnets in the world. The rock soars 132 metres above one of the most dangerous and narrow
shipping passages on the Rhine River, near Saint Goarshausen - and was the cause of many a shipwreck.
From the top of Lorelei, one looks across the curving Rhine between Taunus and Hunsrueck. All along the Upper Rhine Valley are historic castles that have dominated the bucolic landscape since the Middle Ages.
Lorelei is named after the mythical goddess who combed her
hair and lured ship captains to their death against her rocky depths.
The Mittelrheinbruecke project is UNESCO's second controversy with a German heritage site, with the first one - also involving a bridge - involving the Elbe River city of Dresden.
Last year, UNESCO stripped Dresden of its status as a cultural heritage site after extended controversy over Dresden's plans to build a bridge across the Elbe close to the city centre.
