Architecture News

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites

By Anna Fixsen

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Albania's Spaç Prison, 'deserves to be transformed into a modern place of remembrance,' says the WMF.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
The Brussels Palace of Justice in Belgium.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Ladeira da Misericórdia in Brazil, abandoned for two decades, is the site of a groundbreaking Lina Bo Bardi project.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
The Chug-Chug Geoglyphs in Chile.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Cuba's modernist National Arts School.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Ecuador's Church and Convent of San Francisco.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
The Moseley Road Baths in England.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
The Buddhist cave temples of Gon-Nila-Phuk in India.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Italy's Arch of Janus is the only remaining quadrifrons arch in Rome.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
The ancient city of Petra in Jordan.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Cambodia's modernist National Sports Complex.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
After an earthquake ripped through Nepal this April, all of the country's cultural heritage sites were added to the watch list.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Bucharest, Romania.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
San Esteban del Rey Mission in New Mexico.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The World's 50 Most Endangered Cultural Sites
Zimbabwe's monumental Great Zimbabwe site.
Image courtesy World Monuments Fund

The ancient city of Petra in Jordan.

The World Monuments Fund (WMF) today announced its 2016 Monuments Watch list, a biennial designation that identifies the world’s most vulnerable heritage sites to generate awareness and prompt preservation.

“The 2016 Watch includes many extraordinary places that deserve to be celebrated because they represent high moments of human culture,” said WMF president Bonnie Burnham. “Worldwide concern would strengthen our ability to save them.”

This year's roster features 50 structures in 36 countries—from Albania to Zimbabwe—and encompasses a wide variety of types—from an Edwardian bathhouse to a submerged city. While many of the at-risk monuments are ancient, the lineup spotlights neglected modernist structures including the National Arts Schools in Cuba, and Lina Bo Bardi’s Ladeira da Misericórdia in Brazil. The WMF also focused on Nepal after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated many of the country's cultural treasures this April.

A special addition to the 2016 list is the “Unnamed Monument” to recognize the innumerable cultural sites in danger of destruction due to political upheaval and war. This designation, according to the WMF, aims to “shift the focus to local populations who are losing their cultural heritage and history, and away from our own outrage, which plays to the propaganda of those who are perpetrating this damage.”

Over the course of its two-decade history, the WMF has pinpointed 790 at-risk sites. You can explore the complete list here.

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Anna Fixsen was a staff writer and editor for Architectural Record from 2013 to 2017, during which time she covered topics ranging from new projects to human rights, and edited Firms to Watch—a special section devoted to emerging architecture firms.