Notre Dame and Easter Island on the list of the 25 most endangered monuments in the world. No Italians on the list

There are also Notre-Dame Cathedral and the statues ofEaster Island on the list of the world’s 25 most at-risk monuments compiled for 2020 by the World Monuments Fund (WMF), the international nonprofit founded in 1965 to save endangered heritage: since then, the WMF has initiated more than 600 conservation projects in 90 countries around the world (in Italy, it has been very active in Venice). The list of sites at risk, known as World Monuments Watch, was established in 1995, occurs every two years and aims to identify the cultural heritage that appears to be in the most urgent danger so as to stimulate technical and economic actions that can support its preservation. And thanks to the sponsorship of American Express, a partner in the initiative, sites on the list will receive $1 million for conservation actions.

“The 2020 World Monuments Watch,” points out Bénédicte de Montlaur, CEO of the World Monuments Fund, “includes iconic treasures like Easter Island and socially relevant sites like the Woolworth Building in San Antonio, reminding us how beloved sites are not only defined by their architectural value, but also by their impact on communities scattered around the world. These important sites require solutions that are sustainable, driven by their communities, and able to bring people together and fuse together preservation and social change.”

The twenty-five sites included in the 2020 list are as follows: Koutammakou, land of the Batammariba (Benin and Togo; villages of the Batammariba people at risk); Ontario Place (Canada; a large Toronto structure currently closed and at risk of abandonment); Rapa Nui (Chile; the few actions made to protect the works are a threat, the site moreover was already included in the 1996 and 2000 lists); Alexan Palace (Egypt; residence of the Alexan family, purchased by the Egyptian state in 1995 and now derelict); Notre-Dame de Paris (France; devastated by fire in April 2019); Bennerley Viaduct (England; rare example of a viaduct dating back to the industrial revolution era, now unused); Tusheti National Park (Georgia; important park threatened by landscape degradation); Gingerbread neighborhood (Haiti; traditional houses of Port-au-Price, in severe disrepair); historic aqueducts of the Deccan Plateau (India; disused and decaying, their reactivation could benefit the people living in the area); Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel stadium (India; a symbol of post-colonial India, now abandoned); Mam Rashan temple (Iraq; devastated by Isis, plans to rebuild); Inari-yu baths (Japan; traditional facility in danger of disappearing); Iwamatsu district (Japan; coastal town with historic buildings from the Meiji period in danger of abandonment); Canal Nacional (Mexico; a canal with two thousand years of history, threatened by urbanization growth); traditional farms of Burma (Myanmar; at risk due to the changing lifestyle of the population); Choijin Lama temple (Mongolia; suffering heavy degradation); chiva and chaitya of Kathmandu valley (Nepal; small votive temples threatened by urban growth); Anarkali bazaar (Pakistan; historic market at risk due to population lifestyle changes); sacred valley of the Incas (Peru; sites threatened by encroaching economic development projects); Kindler chapel (Poland; deteriorating); courtyards of Axerquía (Spain; characteristic of the historic center of Córdoba, abandoned and degraded); Bears Ears National Monument (USA; American Indian site at risk); Central Aguirre district (Puerto Rico; devastated by a hurricane, its reconstruction is proceeding very slowly); Woolworth Building (USA; San Antonio building symbolic of the anti-segregation struggles of African Americans, in need of preservation and enhancement); traditional Jewish houses in Mahalla district in Bukhara (Uzbekistan; in neglect due to heavy emigration).

Pictured: the Notre-Dame Cathedral after the April 2019 fire.

Notre Dame and Easter Island on the list of the 25 most endangered monuments in the world. No Italians on the list

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