Trockenmauern (German); construction en pierre sèche (French)
The construction of walls, terraces, and outbuildings from carefully selected and arranged stone, using no mortar, cement, or other binding material at all — an inherently social craft practiced across the canton of Valais, requiring what UNESCO's own official description calls an innate understanding of geometry and physics, where each stone's placement is judged individually to ensure the structure's long-term stability and adaptation to local terrain and climate; the Valais tradition, once in genuine danger of terminal neglect, is now actively flourishing again, distinct from the neighboring, more internationally photographed dry-stone terraces of Lavaux, and Switzerland was among the original eight countries whose dry-stone craft was inscribed by UNESCO in 2018, an element since extended in 2024 to include six further nations.
Risk level: Vulnerable · UNESCO Representative List (2018) — Art of Dry Stone Walling
The silk weaving tradition of Zürich — historically one of Europe's most significant silk textile centers from the 16th century, when Huguenot and Italian refugees brought silk-weaving knowledge to the city; at its peak the Zürich silk…
The construction and hand-maintenance of bisses, small artificial water channels carved, built, and suspended along Alpine mountainsides in the canton of Valais to carry glacial meltwater across many kilometers of some of the most rugged…
The Romansh oral tradition — specifically the Strenna (the Romansh New Year song tradition) and the Chalender Marz (Romansh spring driving-out-winter ceremony with bells and shouting) — documented as craft practices of voice and acoustic…
The risotto making tradition of Canton Ticino — the Italian Swiss approach to the northern Italian rice dish that uses the specific Ticino wine (Merlot del Ticino) and the region's chestnut-forest-fed luganighe sausage as key ingredients.
The wine making tradition of Valposchiavo — the southernmost valley of Canton Graubünden, which opens southward into the Valtellina (Italy) and where the Italian Nebbiolo grape is cultivated at some of the highest altitudes in Europe…
The stone tile roofing tradition of Canton Ticino — the use of Piode (large flat stone tiles split from mica-schist or serpentinite) to create the characteristic heavy, dark stone roofs of the historic Ticino villages that define the…
The construction and ritual maintenance of mud-brick buildings in Agadez, Niger, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2013, most famously embodied in the Grand Mosque's minaret — at 27 meters (89 feet), the tallest mud-brick structure in the…
The conservation of Roman floor and wall mosaics in Trier (Augusta Treverorum) — Germany's oldest city, Roman capital of the Western Empire from 293 CE, whose UNESCO World Heritage Roman monuments include the Porta Nigra, the Imperial…
The nón lá is Vietnam's most iconic cultural symbol — the conical palm leaf hat worn by farmers, women, and children as sun and rain protection across the country.
Hoi An's silk lanterns are one of the most immediately recognizable images of Vietnamese culture — round, oval, and geometric-form fabric-covered wire lanterns in brilliant colors that fill the ancient town's streets for every full moon…
Ornamental plastering using plâtre de Paris (Paris gypsum plaster) — a fast-setting calcined gypsum unique to the Paris basin — for molded cornices, ceiling roses, and decorative panels.
Excavation and fitting-out of habitable spaces carved directly into the Loire Valley's tuffeau cliffs.