World Monuments Fund Releases 2025 Watch List of At-Risk Cultural Heritage Sites
Maine’s trove of historic lighthouses, a collection of Albanian monasteries, a Parisian chapel, and Earth’s sole natural satellite are among the latest cultural heritage sites identified by global heritage preservation nonprofit the World Monuments Fund (WMF) as being “Watch”-worthy. That is, all are included in the latest edition of the organization’s biennial list of invaluable places under threat from climate change, mass tourism, natural disasters, and war.
Featuring 25 sites in total, the 2025 Watch sites represent 29 countries spanning five continents and, with the inclusion of the Moon, extends to outer space for the first time in the program’s nearly 30-year history (and to Angola and Zambia). To date, WMF has contributed more than $120 million toward preservation efforts at roughly 350 Watch sites; inclusion of these sites has aided communities in securing an additional $300 million in funding from other sources. Nominations for more than 200 imperiled places were received for the 2025 Watch.
Interior detail of the Sorbonne Chapel’s central dome. Photo courtesy World Monuments Fund
Topping the list are two sites left in ruin by conflict. In Ukraine, Kyiv’s historic Teacher’s House “underscores the role of cultural heritage in fostering unity and morale as communities rebuild.” In Palestine, what remains of the historic urban fabric of Gaza “emphasizes the critical need to prepare recovery efforts using heritage to anchor collective memory and a shared sense of belonging.
Other notable sites including a never-completed Modernist cinema in the Angolan city of Moçâmedes (formerly Namibe); the historic structures lining the Musi River in Hyderabad; India; the Belfast Assembly Rooms, which stands as one of the oldest civic buildings in Northern Ireland; and the ancient water infrastructure of the Medina of Tunis. Two sites span multiple countries, including the Qhapac Ñan, a pre-Hispanic road network spanning Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Ecuador, and Chile that is threatened by development and environmental degradation. Two endangered sites in the United States, which has the most Watch sites of any country to be named since the program’s inception, appear on the list: The Great Trading Path, a corridor of Indigenous roads and trails that stretches through the Chesapeake and Piedmont regions, and the climate change–threatened historic lighthouses of Maine, which the WMF believes can “catalyze development of coastal adaption strategies.”
Majel with manual water-drawing system in Tunis courtyard. Photo courtesy World Monuments Fund
As for the somewhat curious inclusion of the Moon, WMF president and CEO Bénédicte de Montlaur states that it “underscores the universal need for proactive and cooperative strategies to protect heritage—whether on Earth or beyond—that reflect and safeguard our collective narrative.”
Below are all 25 2025 WMF Watch sites, arranged alphabetically by location, with links back to more information about the cultural significance of each and the threats that they face.
Monasteries of the Drino Valley, Albania
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Qhapaq Ñan, Andean Road System, Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Buddhist Grottoes of Maijishan and Yungang, China
Swahili Coast Heritage Sites, Comoros, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania.webp)
Waves crash along a seawall on Mozambique Island. Photo courtesy World Monuments Fund
Chapel of the Sorbonne, France
Serifos Historic Mining Landscape, Greece
Bhuj Historic Water Systems, India
Musi River Historic Buildings, India
Noto Peninsula Heritage Sites, Japan
The Three Buddha temples at Erdene Zuu house a collection of Buddhist artifacts. Photo courtesy World Monuments Fund
Erdene Zuu Buddhist Monastery, Mongolia
Jewish Heritage of Debdou, Morocco
Chief Ogiamien’s House, Nigeria
Gaza Historic Urban Fabric, Palestine
Waru Waru Agricultural Fields, Peru
Interior view of ruins of the 15th-century San Martín de Tours Church in Old Belchite. Photo courtesy Wold Monuments Fund
Water Reservoirs of the Tunis Medina, Tunisia
Historic City of Antakya, Turkey
Teacher's House in central Kyiv, prior to sustaining damage in the war. Photo courtesy World Monuments Fund
Belfast Assembly Rooms, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
The Great Trading Path, United States
Storm surf at Portland Head Light, Cape Elizabeth. Photo courtesy of Dominic Trapani
Historic Lighthouses of Maine, United States
Barotse Floodplain Cultural Landscape, Zambia
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