The
Academical Village and nearby
Monticello became a joint
World Heritage Site in 1987. Simultaneously with
Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park and
Chaco Culture National Historical Park, they were the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth U.S. sites designated as culturally significant to the collective interests of global humanity, coming after the
Statue of Liberty and
Yosemite National Park three years earlier. As such, UVA possesses the only U.S. collegiate grounds to be internationally protected by the
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).