Aside from the Great Wall, the Forbidden City in Beijing is no doubt China’s most famous landmark. From the thousands of tourists who visit the ancient city each day, it is hard to imagine that the imperial precinct was completely off-limits to the general public until 1925, relatively recently...Read more
Even in fragments, the monastery church of St. Francis and Gorton commands our attention. Built in the mid 1860s at the height of Manchester’s industrial prosperity, St. Francis and Gorton was in its day the largest parish church built in England since the time of the Reformation. Yet within a...Read more
Like many in the field of preservation, I have often wondered at just what point a work of human genius becomes a monument. Is it at the moment when its foundation is aid, or long after its creator or patron has passed into the otherworld, or is it sometime in between? Read more
Embraced by two of the world’s great mountain ranges—the Himalaya and the Karakoram—the tiny Buddhist kingdom of Ladakh—now part of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir—is one of the most desolate places on Earth. Yet it is also one of the most enchanting with its snow-capped peaks and rugged...Read more
Perched high atop the steep banks of the Neretva River in southwestern Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Ottoman city of Mostar was for centuries a shining example of multiethnic diversity in the heart of the Balkans, a region often rocked by war and conquest. Following the collapse of Communism in the early...Read more
Among the most imposing of all the ancient Roman ruins lining the Dalmatian Coast are those of a palace built by the emperor Diocletian (r. a.d. 284–305) for his retirement in his hometown of Split. More fortress than residence, the palace, which overlooks the Bay of Aspalathos, once covered an...Read more
This project-based learning unit is one of a series developed by World Monuments Fund and World Savvy, an education organization dedicated to engaging youth in community and world affairs. By combining WMF’s knowledge and experience in the heritage field with World Savvy’s education mission and...Read more
With a population exceeding 24 million and urban sprawl blanketing an estimated 1,482 square kilometers, Mexico City is among the largest cities in the world—and one of the highest at an elevation of 2,240 meters. As one gazes out over the seemingly endless imprint of civilization embraced by the...Read more
There had never been a building like it: a skyscraper that twisted back on itself like a pretzel, wrapping glass and steel around a hole filled with sky. But after 25 years or so, the vast bureaucracy of the government TV station headquartered there had been dispersed and a building that had once...Read more
Every two years since 1996, the World Monuments Watch has focused global attention on cultural heritage sites around the world that are facing such dangers and that illuminate current issues in the field of heritage preservation.Read more