Pyrénées – Mont Perdu World Heritage Site
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How it came to be
Mont Perdu, Monte Perdido in Spanish, rises to 3,355 metres on the border of France and Spain, the third-highest peak in the Pyrenees. Its name means the lost mountain in every local language, and from France it is hidden behind the cirques of Gavarnie and Estaubé.
On the Spanish side, 21 square kilometres including the Ordesa valley were declared a national park on 16 August 1918. Luciano Briet and others had made the region known and helped win its protection. In 1982 the park was enlarged to 156 square kilometres, taking in the Añisclo canyon.
In 1997 the massif shared by the two countries was inscribed as Pyrénées - Mont Perdu, and the site was extended in 1999. Besides its landforms, its agropastoral way of life is a key part of the value of this cultural landscape. The Pyrenean ibex that lived here became extinct in January 2000.
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