Visitors to Historic Bethlehem will have the opportunity to discover the enduring impact of the Moravians on the United States and around the globe as they embark on the new World Heritage Tour led by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites costumed guides. The 90-minute guided walking tour, a collaboration between Central Moravian Church and HBMS, takes place every Saturday at 2 p.m. Tickets for the tour are $25 and available now at historicbethlehem.org or 1-800-360-TOUR.

As a thank you to the Lehigh Valley’s residents for supporting the efforts to have Bethlehem’s early Moravian settlement enshrined as a World Heritage site, residents of Lehigh and Northampton counties will receive 20 percent off ($5) the cost of any tour tickets purchased between now and March 31. Lehigh Valley residents should use Promo Code LVWH2025 to take advantage of the special offer.

World Heritage Tours, which begin at the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, 66 W. Church St., are led by a HBMS docent dressed in period attire and specifically trained to share the unique characteristics and innovativeness that led the Moravians to become a community of “firsts” in our fledgling nation. During the tour, attendees will visit the 1741 Gemeinhaus, the Moravians’ community house and first place of worship in Bethlehem. The 1741 Gemeinhaus has the distinction of being the oldest building in Bethlehem and the only 18th-century Moravian Gemeinhaus still in existence in the world.

Tour attendees will also visit the 1751 Old Chapel, Bethlehem’s second place of worship; and Central Moravian Church, whose sanctuary was completed in 1806. Plus, they will stop in the Bell House Courtyard to see the 1746 Bell House, 1744 Single Sisters’ House and 1768 Widows’ House, as well as visit God’s Acre, the cemetery that was the final resting place for Bethlehem-area Moravians from 1742-1911.

The World Heritage Tour concludes on Bethlehem’s Main Street with a look at the 1748 Second Single Brethren’s House, as well as the Colonial Industrial Quarter’s 1761 Tannery and 1762 Waterworks, the first pumped municipal water system in the country. Considered to be the U.S.’s first industrial park, the Colonial Industrial Quarter was a thriving community of approximately 35 crafts, trades and industries during its height in the mid-1700s.

The World Heritage Tour offered by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites and Central Moravian Church is the only guided tour that covers all the properties and sites included in the Moravian Church Settlements-Bethlehem World Heritage site. In addition to the World Heritage Tour, all tour attendees receive free admission and a guided tour of the Moravian Museum of Bethlehem.

Inscribed on the World Heritage list in July 2024, Moravian Church Settlements-Bethlehem is joined with the Moravian Settlements in Christiansfeld, Denmark; Gracehill, Northern Ireland; and Herrnhut, Germany as a single World Heritage site, making it the United States’ only transnational World Heritage site.

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