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Ruins (from Latin ruina 'a collapse') are the remains of acivilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate destruction by humans, or uncontrollable destruction bynatural phenomena. The most common root causes that yield ruins in their wake arenatural disasters,armed conflict, andpopulation decline, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-termweathering andscavenging.
There are famous ruins all over the world, with notable sites originating fromancient China, theIndus Valley,ancient Iran,ancient Israel andJudea,ancient Iraq,ancient Greece,ancient Egypt,ancient Yemen,Roman,ancient India sites throughout theMediterranean Basin, andIncan andMayan sites in theAmericas. Ruins are of great importance to historians,archaeologists andanthropologists, whether they were once individualfortifications,places of worship,ancient universities,[1] houses and utility buildings, or entire villages, towns, and cities. Many ruins have becomeUNESCO World Heritage Sites in recent years, to identify and preserve them as areas of outstanding value to humanity.[2]
Ancient cities were often highly militarized and had fortified defensivesettlements. In times of war, they were the central focus ofarmed conflict and would besacked and ruined in defeat.Delhi, the capital ofIndia, has been destroyed and ransacked seven to ten times and subsequently rebuilt. Every ruler decided to build the city in their own way either overlapping the ruins or next to the ruins. Ruins of seven cities of Delhi can still be traced in the modern-day city.[3]
Although less central to modern conflict, vast areas of 20th-century cities such asWarsaw,Dresden,Coventry,Stalingrad,Königsberg, andBerlin were left in ruins followingWorld War II, and a number of major cities around the world – such asBeirut,Kabul,Sarajevo,Grozny, andBaghdad – have been partially or completely ruined in recent years as a result of more localized warfare.[4]
Entire cities have also been ruined, and some occasionally lost completely, tonatural disasters. Theancient Roman city ofPompeii in modern-dayItaly was completely destroyed during avolcanic eruption in the 1st century CE, and its uncovered ruins are now preserved as aWorld Heritage Site. The city ofLisbon inPortugal was alsocompletely destroyed in 1755 by a massiveearthquake andtsunami; and the1906 San Francisco earthquake in theUnited States had left the city in almost complete ruin.
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Apart from acts of war, some important historic buildings have fallen victim to deliberate acts of destruction as a consequence of social, political and economic factors. The spoliation of public monuments in Rome was under way during the fourth century, when it was covered in protective legislation in theTheodosian Code[5] and in new legislation ofMajorian.[6] The dismantling increased once popes were free of imperial restrictions.[7] Marble was still being burned for agricultural lime in the Roman Campagna into the nineteenth century.
In Europe, many religious buildings suffered as a result of the politics of the day. In the 16th century, the English monarchHenry VIII set about confiscating the property of monastic institutions in a campaign which became known as theDissolution of the Monasteries. Manyabbeys andmonasteries fell into ruin when their assets, including lead roofs, were stripped.
In the 20th century, a number of European historic buildings fell into ruin as a result of taxation policies, which required all structures with roofs to pay substantialproperty tax. The owners of these buildings, likeFetteresso Castle (now restored) andSlains Castle inScotland, deliberately destroyed their roofs in protest at, and defiance of, the new taxes. Other decrees of government have had a more direct result, such as the case ofBeverston Castle, in which the English parliament ordered significant destruction of the castle to prevent it being used by oppositionRoyalists. Ireland has encouraged the ruin of grand Georgian houses, seen as symbols of Britain.[citation needed][a]
As a rule, towers built of steel are dismantled, when not used any more, because their construction can be either rebuilt on a new site or if the state of construction does not allow a direct reuse, the metal can be recycled economically. However, sometimes tower basements remain, because their removal can be expensive. One example of such a basement is the basement of the former radio mast ofDeutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster.
The basements of large wooden towers such asTransmitter Ismaning may also be left behind, because removing them would be difficult.
The contemplation of "rust belt" post-industrial ruins is in its infancy.[8]
In the Middle Ages Roman ruins were inconvenient impediments to modern life, quarries for pre-shaped blocks for building projects, or marble to be burnt for agricultural lime, and subjects for satisfying commentaries on the triumph of Christianity and the general sense of the world's decay, in what was assumed to be its last age, before theSecond Coming.[citation needed] With theRenaissance, ruins took on new roles among a cultural elite, as examples for a consciously revived and purified architectureall' antica, and for a new aesthetic appreciation of their innate beauty as objects of venerable decay.[9] The chance discovery of Nero'sDomus Aurea at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the early excavations atHerculaneum andPompeii had marked effects on current architectural styles, inRaphael's Rooms at the Vatican and inneoclassical interiors, respectively. The new sense ofhistoricism that accompanied neoclassicism led some artists and designers to conceive of the modern classicising monuments of their own day as they would one day appear as ruins.
In the period ofRomanticism ruins (mostly ofcastles) were frequent object for painters, place of meetings of romantic poets, nationalist students etc. (e.g.Bezděz Castle inBohemia,Hambach Castle in Germany,Devin Castle in Slovakia).
Ruin value (German:Ruinenwert) is the concept that a building be designed such that if it eventually collapsed, it would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far longer without any maintenance at all.Joseph Michael Gandy completed forSir John Soane in 1832 an atmospheric watercolor of the architect's vastBank of England rotunda as a picturesquely overgrown ruin, that is an icon ofRomanticism.[10][11]Ruinenwert was popularized in the 20th century by Albert Speer while planning for the1936 Summer Olympics and published asDie Ruinenwerttheorie ("The Theory of Ruin Value").
Ruins remain a popular subject for painting and creative photography[12] and are often romanticized in film and literature, providing scenic backdrops or used asmetaphors for other forms of decline or decay. For example, the ruins ofDunstanburgh Castle in England inspiredTurner to create several paintings; in 1989 the ruinedDunnottar Castle in Scotland was used for filming ofHamlet.
