The Heart’s Content Cable Station, and provincial historic site is one step closer to UNESCO World Heritage status.
Heart’s Content is where the massive steamship the Great Eastern landed in 1866 with a communications cable linking North America to Europe.
The Great Eastern in Heart’s Content in 1866. (Photo via MUN archives)
A cable station, designed by J.J. Southcott, was built in Heart’s Content in the 1870s and stayed in operation until the 1960s. It was designated as a Provincial Historic Site in 1974 and is a popular tourism draw for the Trinity Shore as a museum that is open to the public.
The provincial government says what makes this designation process unique is that it is in conjunction with Valencia, Ireland from where the trans-Atlantic cable originated. As such, UNESCO World Heritage nominations involving more than one country are complex and include the requirement for each country to be on their respective country’s Tentative List for World Heritage.
(Photo via Government of NL)
The province says after five years of hard work that requirement was finally met last year and the collective nomination was sent to UNESCO for official registration.
A comprehensive World Heritage Nomination dossier is now being prepared, a process that will take years. A strategic planning session is scheduled for this spring to develop a detailed nomination work plan.
