Abomey Royal Palaces

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Abomey Royal Palaces
UNESCO world heritage UNESCO World Heritage Emblem
Abomey-Palais du roi Glèlè (3) .jpg
Former palace of King Glèlè,
now the seat of the Historical Museum
National territory: BeninBenin Benin
Type: Culture
Criteria : (iii) (iv)
Surface: 47.6 ha
Buffer zone: 181.4 ha
Reference No .: 323
UNESCO region : Africa
History of enrollment
Enrollment: 1985  (session 9)
Red list : 1985-2007

The Abomey Royal Palaces are a series of palaces where the kings of Dahomey resided. They are among the most important sights in the city of Abomey , the capital of the Zou department in the south of the African state of Benin . As one of the most famous and historically significant sites in West Africa, they were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985 .

history

The Kingdom of Dahomey came into being in the early 17th century in the south of what is now Benin. Under the twelve kings who succeeded one another from 1625 to 1900, it developed into one of the most powerful empires on the west coast of Africa. In 1894 it was conquered by the French and subsequently became a French colony. The capital of the kingdom was Abomey. The city was surrounded by a mud wall with six gates and a ditch in front of it, overgrown with thorn bushes. Within the walls were villages separated by fields, several royal palaces, a market and a large square with barracks. The kings owed part of their income to the slave trade . They erected their royal palaces as adobe buildings in a fenced-in area. These palaces not only formed the decision-making center of the empire, but also formed a center for the development of craft techniques and a repository for the empire's treasures.

description

The Abomey Royal Palaces comprise a series of ten palaces, some of which are built next to each other and some of which are superimposed according to the succession of kings. Each palace is surrounded by walls that form three courtyards, the outer, inner and private courtyards. Architectural features are the use of traditional materials and polychrome bas-reliefs . The Abomey Historical Museum is housed in the palaces of Kings Gézo and Glélé .

Since 1993, 50 of the 56 reliefs that once adorned the walls of King Glélé's palace have been found and re-attached to the rebuilt structure. The reliefs show the history of the Fon people in iconographic representations .

World cultural heritage and announced restitutions from France

Blackboard at the palace ( [...] tourist office of Abomey and the region with the support of German cooperation, PDDC / GIZ / DED ), 2007

The Royal Palaces of Abomey were entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985 based on a resolution of the 9th session of the World Heritage Committee and are thus one of Benin's two World Heritage sites with the W-Arly-Pendjari National Park complex (as of 2017, see List of World Heritage in Benin ). Benin ratified the World Heritage Convention in 1982.

The reason for the entry states, among other things:

From 1625 to 1900, 12 kings succeeded each other at the head of the powerful Abomey kingdom. With the exception of King Akaba, who used their own separate fenced-in area, they all had their palaces built in the same mud-walled area, in keeping with previous palaces in terms of the use of space and materials. The Abomey Royal Palaces are a unique reminder of this lost kingdom.

The entry was made on the basis of criteria (iii) and (iv).

(iii): The Abomey Royal Palaces are a group of monuments of great historical and cultural value due to the conditions that led to their construction and the events that witnessed them. They are the living expression of a culture and an organized power and a testimony to the glorious past of the kings who ruled the kingdom of Dahomey from 1620 to 1900.

(iv): Organized as a series of courtyards of increasing importance, each with access through portals built on the walls of the main enclosure, the Royal Palaces of Abomey form a unique architectural ensemble. These complex fortified structures illustrate the ingenuity developed by royal power from the mid-17th century onwards, in keeping with the principle established by the founder of the empire, Houegbadja, "that the empire should keep growing".

The world heritage site consists of two separate but close together areas. These cover a total of 47.6 ha of protection and are surrounded by a shared buffer zone with an area of ​​181.4 ha. Area 1 to the north ( location , protection area 10.5 ha) includes the specially fenced-in area of ​​the palace of King Akaba ( location ). Area 2 to the south ( location , protection area 37.7 ha) includes the palace of King Behanzin ( location ), the royal court of the Amazons ( location ) and the area ( location ) of the palaces of the kings Houegbadja ( location ), Agadja , Tegbesu , Kpengla , Agonglo , Gézo , Glélé ( location ) and Agoli-Agbo ( location ).

In the same session in which the inclusion in the World Heritage took place, however, the royal palaces of Abomey were also placed on the Red List of World Heritage in Danger, because a tornado in Abomey in March 1984 caused severe damage. Inadequate precautions for the protection and preservation of the palace ruins by the government of Benin meant that they were only removed from the Red List in 2007 after renovations have since taken place. In particular, it was criticized that too little attention was paid to the authenticity of the original when the destroyed buildings were rebuilt, and that for a long time two thirds of the palaces were acutely threatened by further destruction. After the site was removed from the Red List, however, there was further damage to the buildings from fire in 2009 and 2015.

In November 2018, at the presentation of the report on the restitution of African cultural goods , French President Emmanuel Macron announced that he would restitute 26 important works of art from the Musée du quai Branly . However, since the existing buildings do not meet the modern requirements of a museum, France committed a loan for the construction costs of such a museum in July 2019.

gallery

  • Royal Palaces of Abomey-133490.jpg
  • Royal Palaces of Abomey-133495.jpg
  • Royal Palaces of Abomey-133469.jpg
  • Royal Palaces of Abomey-133471.jpg
  • Abomey Royal Palace2.jpg
  • Abomey Royal Palace.jpg

Web links

Commons : Royal Palaces of Abomey  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d UNESCO World Heritage Center: Royal Palaces of Abomey. In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved May 18, 2017 .
  2. ^ English Royal Palaces of Abomey , German translation according to the World Heritage List. In: Unesco.de. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .
  3. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Decision: CONF 008 XA In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved May 19, 2017 (English).
  4. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Royal Palaces of Abomey. Maps. In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved May 9, 2017 .
  5. ↑ UNESCO World Heritage Center: Decision: CONF 008 XI.30. In: whc.unesco.org. Retrieved May 19, 2017 (English).
  6. ↑ State of conservation reports of the properties enscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger ( PDF; 742 kB), status report in the minutes of the World Heritage Committee from 8-16 July 2006, p. 57ff
  7. ↑ Devastating fire at the Royal Palaces of Abomey (Benin). In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, February 13, 2009, accessed May 30, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Another Fire at the Royal Palaces of Abomey World Heritage site in Benin. In: whc.unesco.org. UNESCO World Heritage Center, January 18, 2015, accessed May 30, 2017 .
  9. ↑ Benin gets € 20m loan for new museum to show restituted heritage. Retrieved August 2, 2019 .