A Canadian Treasure Protected for all of Humanity
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The Landscape of Grand Pré became Canada’s 16th World Heritage Site, inscribed by UNESCO in 2012. The 13 square-kilometre (5 mi²) site is located on the Bay of Fundy’s Minas Basin in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites are recognized as having Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) for humanity as a whole. This means they have cultural and/or natural significance which is so exceptional as to transcend national boundaries and to be of common importance for present and future generations everywhere. The essence of the Outstanding Universal Value of this remarkable agricultural and symbolic landscape is captured below: The Landscape of Grand Pré is an exceptional living agricultural landscape, claimed from the sea in the 17th century and still in use today applying the same technology and the same community-based management. Grand Pré is also the iconic place of remembrance of the Acadians who lived in harmony with the native Mi’Kmaq people before the Expulsion which began in 1755. Its memorial constructions form the centre of the symbolic re-appropriation of the land of their origins by the Acadians, in the 20th century, in a spirit of peace and cultural sharing with the local area community. Please see UNESCO for the approved and complete statement of Outstanding Universal Value. |
Request for Proposals
Please visit the Projects page to learn more about our Request for Proposals.
The Grand Pré Branding & Wayfinding Survey. Click here for more information.
The Landscape of Grand Pré brochure. Click to download PDF.
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 Discover. Learn. Enjoy.
The dykelands, fields, and settlement on the hills, first established by the Acadians in the 1680s, have been maintained and expanded over centuries by farmers of New England Planter descent, and later immigrants - including English and Scottish who came in the 19th and 20th centuries and Dutch who arrived after the Second World War.
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 Agricultural Excellence
Here at Grand-Pré, as elsewhere in Acadie, the Acadians established their settlements to take advantage of the potentially fertile salt marshes. In fact, no other people in North America developed agricultural communities as extensively as the Acadians did by transforming intertidal zones with the use of aboiteau technology.
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 History and Development
Since the 1680s, when a small group of Acadian settlers first arrived in the area and called the vast wetlands la grand pré (The Big Meadow,) the human history of Grand Pré has been linked to its natural setting and the exceptional fertility of this land by the sea.
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Project funding provided by:
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