Amonument is a type of structure created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical, political, technical or architectural importance.[1] Examples of monuments include statues, (war) memorials, historical buildings, and cultural assets. If there is a public interest in its preservation, a monument can for example be listed as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site.[2]
The word "monument" comes from the Latin "monumentum", derived from the wordmoneo,monere, which means 'to remind' or 'to warn', suggesting a monument allows us to see the past thus helping us visualize what is to come in the future.[3] In English the word "monumental" is often used in reference to something of extraordinary size and power, as inmonumental sculpture, but also to mean simply anything made to commemorate the dead, as afunerary monument or other example offunerary art.
A formalist interpretation of monuments suggests their origins date back to antiquity and even prehistory. Archaeologists like Gordon Childe viewed ancient monuments as symbols of power. Historians such as Lewis Mumford proposed that the practice began with Paleolithic landmarks, which served as sites for communication with ancestral spirits. However, these perspectives often project modern uses of monuments onto ancient structures. In art history, monuments are seen as significant sculptural forms; in architecture and urban planning, they are crucial for city organization and mapping. These contemporary interpretations have been retroactively applied to ancient and non-Western structures. This modern concept of monuments aligns with how past constructions are labeled as monuments today. Françóise Choay highlights the distinction between these views: "The historic monument is a precisely datable invention of the West... exported and diffused beyond Europe from the late nineteenth century."[4]
Monuments are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location. Planned cities such asWashington, D.C.,New Delhi andBrasília are often built around monuments. For example, theWashington Monument's location was conceived byL'Enfant to help organize public space in the city, before it was designed or constructed. Older cities have monuments placed at locations that are already important or are sometimes redesigned to focus on one.[citation needed]
Structures created for other purposes that have been made notable by their age, size or historic significance may also be regarded as monuments. This can happen because of great age and size, as in the case of theGreat Wall of China, or because an event of great importance occurred there such as the village ofOradour-sur-Glane inFrance. Many countries use 'ancient monument' or similar terms for the official designation of protected structures orarcheological sites which may originally have been ordinary domestic houses or other buildings.
Monuments are also often designed to convey historical or political information, and they can thus develop an active socio-political potency. They can be used to reinforce the primacy of contemporary political power, such as thecolumn of Trajan or the numerous statues ofLenin in theSoviet Union. They can be used to educate the populace about important events or figures from the past, such as in the renaming of the old General Post Office Building in New York City to theJames A. Farley Building, afterJames Farley, formerPostmaster General of the United States.[5] To fulfill its informative and educative functions a monument needs to be open to the public, which means that its spatial dimension, as well as its content can be experienced by the public, and be sustainable. The former may be achieved either by situating the monument in public space or by a public discussion about the monument and its meaning, the latter by the materiality of the monument or if its content immediately becomes part of the collective or cultural memory.[6]
The social meanings of monuments are rarely fixed and certain and are frequently contested by different social groups.[7] As an example, the many Confederate monuments that dot the landscape of the American South stand for the remembrance of slavery and continued systemic racism, for one group, and as a token of honor to the ancestors of another group.[8]
While many ancient monuments still exist today, there are notable incidents of monuments being intentionally or accidentally destroyed and many monuments are likely to have disappeared through the passage of time and natural forces such as erosion. In 772 during theSaxon Wars,Charlemagne intentionally destroyed anIrminsul monument[9] in order to desecrate the pagan religion. In 1687 theParthenon inAthens was partially destroyed by aVenetian mortar round, which set off the store of gunpowder kept there by the Turkish defenders.[10]
A recent archeological dig in central France uncovered the remains of aMegalithic monument that had been previously destroyed: "Like some monuments, including Belz inMorbihan, the menhirs ofVeyre-Monton were knocked down in order to make them disappear from the landscape. Pushed into large pits, sometimes mutilated or covered with earth, these monoliths have been destroyed. 'object of iconoclastic gestures, a sort of condemnation perhaps linked to some change of community or beliefs "[11][12]
The term is often used to describe any structure that is a significant and legally protected historic work, and many countries have equivalents of what is called in United Kingdom legislation aScheduled Monument, which often include relatively recent buildings constructed for residential or industrial purposes, with no thought at the time that they would come to be regarded as "monuments".
Until recently, it was customary forarchaeologists to study large monuments and pay less attention to the everyday lives of the societies that created them. New ideas about what constitutes thearchaeological record have revealed that certain legislative and theoretical approaches to the subject are too focused on earlier definitions of monuments. An example has been the United Kingdom'sScheduled Ancient Monument laws.
Other than municipal or national government that protecting the monuments in their jurisdiction, there are institutions dedicated on the efforts to protect and preserve monuments that considered to possess special natural or cultural significance for the world, such asUNESCO'sWorld Heritage Site programme[13] andWorld Monuments Fund.[2]
Cultural monuments are also considered to be the memory of a community and are therefore particularly at risk in the context of modern asymmetrical warfare. The enemy's cultural heritage is to be sustainably damaged or even destroyed. In addition to the national protection of cultural monuments, international organizations (cf.UNESCO World Heritage,Blue Shield International) therefore try to protect cultural monuments.[14][15][16][17]
Benchmarks placed by a government agency or private survey firm.
Buildings designed as landmarks, usually built with an extraordinary feature, such being designed as the tallest, largest, or most distinctive design, e.g., theBurj Khalifa in Dubai, the world's tallest structure or theOne World Trade Center, thetallest building in the United States, built to memorialize the attack on September 11.
^Bellentani, Federico (2021).The Meanings of the Built Environment A Semiotic and Geographical Approach to Monuments in the Post-Soviet Era.De Gruyter Mouton (published 8 January 2021). pp. 1–173.ISBN9783110614459.
^Roger O’Keefe, Camille Péron, Tofig Musayev, Gianluca Ferrari "Protection of Cultural Property. Military Manual." UNESCO, 2016, S. 73ff.
^UNESCO Director-General calls for stronger cooperation for heritage protection at the Blue Shield International General Assembly. UNESCO, 13 September 2017.
Chaney, Edward.'Egypt in England and America: The Cultural Memorials of Religion, Royalty and Revolution', Sites of Exchange: European Crossroads and Faultines, ed. M. Ascari and A. Corrado, Amsterdam & New York, Rodopi, 2006, 39–6.
Choay, Françoise (2001).The invention of the historic monument. Cambridge University Press.
Gangopadhyay, Subinoy (2002).Testimony of Stone : Monuments of India. Dasgupta & Co.
Phillips, Cynthia; Priwer, Shana (2008).Ancient Monuments. M E Sharpe Reference.
Stierlin, Henri (2005).Great monuments of the ancient world. Thames & Hudson.
