Development concept Reichenau Island Preservation of the special character of the settlement structure, the landscape and the management of the island of Reichenau in harmony with the World Heritage Site

The entire island of Reichenau has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it is a cultural landscape that "bears outstanding witness to the religious and cultural role of a great Benedictine monastery in the Middle Ages". The structural development of the last fifty years, including ever larger greenhouses, has highlighted the need for planning control.

The development concept for the island of Reichenau serves as a planning basis for the community to enable sustainable development in the areas of housing, tourism and agriculture, while permanently preserving the cultural heritage (buildings and cultural landscape). It was prepared as a preliminary stage for the update of the landscape plan.

The concept is primarily concerned with settlement development, nature and landscape and greenhouse construction and shows possible potentials, but also repair possibilities, where corrections should be made due to undesirable developments of the past.

The special feature of the settlement structure of Reichenau is its scattered settlement character, which in other municipalities would be denounced as urban sprawl - but on Reichenau is precisely to be secured. The existing building and planning laws as well as the current case law often oppose the planning objectives of the municipality. The demands of contemporary vegetable growing, which is now predominantly carried out under glass for economic reasons, are also in constant competition with the preservation of the landscape.

The development concept lays the foundations for preserving the special character of the settlement structure, the landscape and the cultivation of Reichenau Island in harmony with the World Heritage Site. The aim is to strike a balance between preservation and contemporary development.

From the justification of the application for inclusion of the "Reichenau Monastery Island in Lake Constance" in the UNESCO World Heritage List:

"The Reichenau Monastery Island in Lake Constance is a unique testimony to the monastic culture of the Occident and at the same time an outstanding site of medieval history, art and culture in Europe.
The island and its monuments present themselves as a topographical and cultural-historical unity, they form an ensemble that is unique in northern Alpine Europe. In this respect, the whole goes beyond the sum of the preserved individual monuments and exemplifies the formation and history of Europe since the first millennium.
Numerous factors - monument inventory, cultural landscape, historical rank and also the intensity of international scientific research - justify the universal significance of the Reichenau. The buildings of the island of Reichenau fulfil the claim to authenticity and genuineness, because they are preserved in their original historical continuity, not reconstructed according to unsecured foundations and restored according to the most modern principles while preserving all historical conditions as far as possible. The use of the island for housing and tourism, as well as the intensive cultivation of large open areas for special agricultural crops, continues the uses that have been practiced for centuries to this day. In doing so, it enjoys the greatest possible protection and assurance of preservation through local, regional, national, and international legal regulations, plans, and guiding principles, and through expert management authorities."