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cultural heritage Cultural heritage is the heritage of tangible and intangible heritage assets of a group or society that is inherited from past generations. Not all heritages of past generations are "heritage"; rather, heritage is a product of selection by soc ...
sites that have been damaged or destroyed accidentally, deliberately, or by a
natural disaster A natural disaster is "the negative impact following an actual occurrence of natural hazard in the event that it significantly harms a community". A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, and typically leaves some econ ...
, sorted by continent, then by country. Cultural heritage can be subdivided into two main types—tangible and
intangible heritage An intangible cultural heritage (ICH) is a practice, representation, expression, knowledge, or skill considered by UNESCO to be part of a place's cultural heritage. Buildings, historic places, monuments, and artifacts are cultural property. Int ...
. The former includes built heritage such as religious buildings, museums, monuments, archaeological sites, and movable heritage such as works of art and manuscripts. Intangible cultural heritage includes customs, music, fashion and other traditions within a particular culture. This article mainly deals with the destruction of built heritage; the destruction of movable collectible heritage is dealt with in art destruction, whilst the destruction of movable
industrial heritage Industrial heritage refers to the physical remains of the history of technology and industry, such as manufacturing and mining sites, as well as power and transportation infrastructure. Another definition expands this scope so that the term a ...
remains almost totally ignored. Deliberate and systematic destruction of cultural heritage, such as that carried out by ISIL and other terrorist organizations, is regarded as a form of
cultural genocide Cultural genocide or cultural cleansing is a concept which was proposed by lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 as a component of genocide. Though the precise definition of ''cultural genocide'' remains contested, the Armenian Genocide Museum defines i ...
.


Africa


Egypt

* The
Library of Alexandria The Great Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was one of the largest and most significant libraries of the ancient world. The Library was part of a larger research institution called the Mouseion, which was dedicated to the Muses, t ...
was destroyed during the
Palmyrene invasion of Egypt The Palmyrene invasion of Egypt occurred in the summer, or possibly in October, of 270 AD when the forces of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra, led by her general Zabdas and aided by an Egyptian general named Timagenes, invaded and subsequently annexed ...
and the following Roman counterattack during the 3rd century AD. * In the late 12th century, Sultan
Al-Aziz Uthman Al-Malik Al-Aziz Uthman ibn Salah Ad-Din Yusuf (1171 – 29 November 1198) was the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt. He was the second son of Saladin. Before his death, Saladin had divided his dominions amongst his kin: Al-Afdal received Palest ...
demolished part of the
Pyramid of Menkaure The pyramid of Menkaure is the smallest of the three main pyramids of the Giza pyramid complex, located on the Giza Plateau in the southwestern outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. It is thought to have been built to serve as the tomb of the Fourth Dynas ...
. * The
Lighthouse of Alexandria The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine ), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the rei ...
, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, was heavily damaged by earthquakes in the 10th and 14th centuries, before being demolished in 1480 to make way for the
Citadel of Qaitbay The Citadel of Qaitbay (or the Fort of Qaitbay; ar, قلعة قايتباي) is a 15th-century defensive fortress located on the Mediterranean sea coast, in Alexandria, Egypt. It was built from 1477 to 1479 AD (882–884 AH) by Sultan Al-Ash ...
. Some stones from the lighthouse were used in the construction of the citadel, and some other remains have survived underwater. * Villa Aghion,
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
. * Objects stolen from the Mosque of Taghribirdi and
Al-Rifai Mosque Al-Rifa'i Mosque ( ar, مسجد الرفاعي, transliterated also as ''Al-Rifai'', Al-Refai, Al-Refa'i, locally known as El-Refa'i, and in English: the Refaai Mosque) is located in Citadel Square, adjacent to the Cairo Citadel. Now, it is als ...
. *
Institut d'Égypte The Institut d'Égypte or Egyptian Scientific Institute is a learned society in Cairo specializing in Egyptology. It was established in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte to carry out research during his Egyptian campaign and is the oldest scientific inst ...
, destroyed on 17 December 2011 during anti-government demonstrations.


Libya

*During the
2011 Libyan Civil War The First Libyan Civil War was an armed conflict in 2011 in the North African country of Libya that was fought between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi and rebel groups that were seeking to oust Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, his government. It ...
, various sites were vandalized, looted, or destroyed. *In March 2015, during the second civil war, the
Islamic State An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic ter ...
destroyed
Sufi Sufism ( ar, ''aṣ-ṣūfiyya''), also known as Tasawwuf ( ''at-taṣawwuf''), is a mystic body of religious practice, found mainly within Sunni Islam but also within Shia Islam, which is characterized by a focus on Islamic spirituality, r ...
shrines near Tripoli.


Madagascar

*In November 1995, a fire broke out in the
Rova of Antananarivo The Rova of Antananarivo ( mg, Rovan'i Manjakamiadana ) is a royal palace complex ('' rova'') in Madagascar that served as the home of the sovereigns of the Kingdom of Imerina in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as of the rulers of the King ...
, a royal palace complex that had served as the home of monarchs in the
Kingdom of Madagascar The Merina Kingdom, or Kingdom of Madagascar, officially the Kingdom of Imerina (–1897), was a pre-colonial state off the coast of Southeast Africa that, by the 19th century, dominated most of what is now Madagascar. It spread outward from ...
since the 17th century. The fire destroyed or severely damaged all of its buildings. The last 2 phases of the Manjakamiadana's (Queen's Palace) reconstruction was started by 2010, and by July 2020 the entire structure has been fully refurbished.


Mali

*The
Great Mosque of Djenne Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...
was allowed to fall into disrepair after the conquest of Djenne by
Seku Amadu Sheikhu Ahmadu ( ar-at, شيخ أحمد بن محمّد لبّو, Shaykh Aḥmadu bin Muḥammadu Lobbo; ff, Seeku Aamadu ; ) (c. 1776 – 20 April 1845) was the Fulbe founder of the Massina Empire (Diina of Hamdullahi) in the Inner Niger De ...
in 1818. It was rebuilt in 1907, however. *Parts of the
World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...
of
Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...
were destroyed after the Battle of Gao in 2012, despite condemnation by
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
, the OIC,
Mali Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Ma ...
, and
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
.


Nigeria

* During the
Benin Expedition of 1897 The Benin Expedition of 1897 was a punitive expedition by a British force of 1,200 men under Sir Harry Rawson in response to the ambush of a previous British party under Acting Consul General James Phillips, of the Niger Coast Protectorate. ...
, the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
launched a military campaign against
Benin City Benin City is the capital and largest city of Edo State, Nigeria. It is the fourth-largest city in Nigeria according to the 2006 census, after Lagos, Kano, and Ibadan, with a population estimate of about 3,500,000 as of 2022. It is situated ap ...
, the capital of the
Kingdom of Benin The Kingdom of Benin, also known as the Edo Kingdom, or the Benin Empire ( Bini: ') was a kingdom within what is now southern Nigeria. It has no historical relation to the modern republic of Benin, which was known as Dahomey from the 17th ce ...
(no relation to the modern country known as Benin), and looted and burned the city. The
Walls of Benin The Walls of Benin are a series of earthworks made up of banks and ditches, called ''ya'' in the Edo language, in the area around present-day Benin City, the capital of present-day Edo, Nigeria. They consist of of city iya and an estimated of ...
and the Royal Palace of the Oba of Benin were destroyed, while the
Benin Bronzes The Benin Bronzes are a group of several thousand metal plaques and sculptures that decorated the royal palace of the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Edo State, Nigeria. Collectively, the objects form the best examples of Benin art and were cr ...
are currently preserved in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
. * During the 18th-19th century
Fula jihads The Fula (or Fulani) jihads ( ar, جهاد الفولا) sometimes called the Fulani revolution were a series of jihads that occurred across West Africa during the 18th and 19th centuries, led largely by the Muslim Fula people. The jihads and ...
of
West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali ...
,
Fula Fula may refer to: *Fula people (or Fulani, Fulɓe) *Fula language (or Pulaar, Fulfulde, Fulani) **The Fula variety known as the Pulaar language **The Fula variety known as the Pular language **The Fula variety known as Maasina Fulfulde *Al-Fula ...
jihadists destroyed Ngazargamu, the capital of the
Bornu Empire Bornu may refer to: * Bornu Empire, a historical state of West Africa * Borno State Borno State is a state in the North-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria, bordered by Yobe to the west, Gombe to the southwest, and Adamawa to the south while it ...
. * During the
Battle of Gawakuke The Battle of Gawakuke was an engagement fought between the Sokoto Caliphate and the Gobir city-state at Gawakuke in northern Nigeria on 9 March 1836. The battle was a victory for Sokoto, and secured the Gobir kingdom's subordination to the caliphat ...
, the
Sokoto Caliphate The Sokoto Caliphate (), also known as the Fulani Empire or the Sultanate of Sokoto, was a Sunni Muslim caliphate in West Africa. It was founded by Usman dan Fodio in 1804 during the Fulani jihads after defeating the Hausa Kingdoms in the F ...
destroyed the
Hausa Hausa may refer to: * Hausa people, an ethnic group of West Africa * Hausa language, spoken in West Africa * Hausa Kingdoms, a historical collection of Hausa city-states * Hausa (horse) or Dongola horse, an African breed of riding horse See also ...
city-state of
Gobir Gobir (Demonym: ''Gobirawa'') was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the 11th century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly 700 years. Its capital was the c ...
.


South Africa

* The
2021 Table Mountain fire The 2021 Table Mountain fire (also known as the Rhodes Memorial fire or Cape Town fire) is a major fire that started on 18 April 2021 in and around Table Mountain National Park and the neighbourhoods of Newlands, Rosebank, Mowbray and Rond ...
partially or completely gutted several historical and/or culturally significant buildings and collections in the
University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...
, including
Mostert's Mill Mostert's Mill (Afrikaans: ''Mostert se Meul'') is a historic windmill in Mowbray, Cape Town, South Africa. It was built in 1796 and was the oldest surviving complete windmill in South Africa. It was gutted in a wildfire on 18 April 2021. The fi ...
(South Africa's oldest working windmill, built 1796) and the university's Special Collections Library, which held over 1,300 collections and over 85,000 books and other items, including a historically significant
Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...
, an original illustration of ''
The Jungle Book ''The Jungle Book'' (1894) is a collection of stories by the English author Rudyard Kipling. Most of the characters are animals such as Shere Khan the tiger and Baloo the bear, though a principal character is the boy or "man-cub" Mowgli, w ...
'', drawings, maps and transcripts of stories from the
indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...
of the
Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
, a major dictionary of the
isiXhosa language Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...
, copies of historic
Xhosa language newspapers This article focuses on the history of 19th century Xhosa language newspapers in South Africa. Introduction The first Nguni languages, Nguni language newspapers in South Africa were founded in the Eastern Cape during the 19th century. The ef ...
, papers by Ray Alexander Simons, and archives of papers relating to many anti-apartheid movements. It is known that the fire completely gutted the library's Reading Room but that a fire detection system prevented the fire from reaching the rest of the library, likely preserving most collections; however, some rare collections were likely lost. A later assessment found that a vast majority of the African Studies Published Print Collection (about 70,000 items) and the entirety of the African Studies Film Collection DVDs (about 3,500 items) had been destroyed, along with documents relating to the university itself as well as any manuscripts or archives being kept in the Reading Room for digitization or after being digitized, but that the rare and antique collections kept underground, including significant documentation and works of the San and Khoi people who lived in the area in the 1870s, had been preserved.


Zimbabwe

*
Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the country's Late Iron Age about which little is known. C ...
has faced some damage since the colonial era. The removal of gold and artifacts in amateurist diggings by early colonial antiquarians caused widespread damage, notably diggings by Richard Nicklin Hall, who was determined to find evidence that the monument wasn't built by indigenous Africans until he eventually relinquished this belief. More extensive damage was caused by the mining of some of the ruins for gold. Reconstruction attempts since 1980 caused further damage, leading to alienation of the local communities from the site. Another source of damage to the ruins has been due to the site being open to visitors with many cases of people climbing the walls, walking over archaeological deposits, and the over-use of certain paths all have had major impacts on the structures at the site. These are in conjunction with damages due to the natural weathering that occurs over time due to vegetation growth, the foundations settling, and erosion from the weather.


Asia


Afghanistan

* During the Soviet invasion, large-scale looting occurred in various archaeological sites including Hadda, ancient site of
Ai-Khanoum Ai-Khanoum (, meaning ''Lady Moon''; uz, Oyxonim) is the archaeological site of a Hellenistic city in Takhar Province, Afghanistan. The city, whose original name is unknown, was probably founded by an early ruler of the Seleucid Empire and se ...
, the
Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
monastery complex in Tepe Shortor which dates back to the 2nd century AD, and the National Kabul Museum. These sites were ransacked by various pillagers, including the pro-Russian government forces, destitute villagers, and the local crime rings. The
National Museum of Afghanistan The National Museum of Afghanistan (Dari: موزیم ملی افغانستان, ''Mūzīyam-e mellī-ye Afghānestān''; ps, د افغانستان ملی موزیم, ''Də Afghānistān Millī Mūzīyəm''), also known as the Kabul Museum, is a ...
suffered the greatest damage, in which the systematic looting has plundered the museum collection and the adjacent Archaeological Institute. As a result, more than two-thirds of one hundred thousand pieces of museum treasures and artifacts were lost or destroyed. * A pair of 6th-century monumental statues known as the
Buddhas of Bamiyan The Buddhas of Bamiyan (or Bamyan) were two 6th-century monumental statues carved into the side of a cliff in the Bamyan valley of Hazarajat region in central Afghanistan, northwest of Kabul at an elevation of . Carbon dating of the structural ...
were dynamited by the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
in 2001, who had declared them heretical idols.


Armenia

* In 1870, a report by the Viceroyalty of the Caucasus recorded 269
Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
mosques in the region. After 1917, many of the city's religious buildings were demolished in accordance with the Soviet government's modernization and anti-religious policies. A mosque in
Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and i ...
was pulled down with a bulldozer at the beginning of the year 1990, which was done as a result of Azerbaijan destroying the Armenian church in Baku. Today there is only one mosque remaining in the city.


Azerbaijan

*Azerbaijani authorities destroyed the
Armenian cemetery in Julfa The Armenian cemetery in Julfa ( hy, Ջուղայի գերեզմանատուն, ''Jughayi gerezmanatun'') was a cemetery near the town of Julfa (known as Jugha in Armenian), in the Nakhchivan exclave of Azerbaijan that originally housed around ...
in December 2005 in the region of Nakhchivan. Azerbaijani representative of Nakhchivan denied that there was an Armenian cemetery there in the first place. *Azerbaijani authorities demolished the Church of the Holy Virgin in Baku in 1992 as part of thei
"de-Armenisation"
campaign which also took place in Nakhichevan. The rest was turned into a restaurant.


Bahrain

* At least 43
Shia Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, mos ...
mosques, including the ornate 400-year-old Amir Mohammed Braighi mosque, and many other religious structures were destroyed by the Bahraini government during the
Bahraini uprising of 2011 The 2011 Bahraini uprising was a series of anti-government protests in Bahrain led by the Shia-dominant and some Sunni minority Bahraini opposition from 2011 until 2014. The protests were inspired by the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and pro ...
.


China

* The historical Famen Temple went through several periods of destruction. First erected during the
Eastern Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...
(AD 25–220), it was destroyed during the years of the
Northern Zhou dynasty Zhou (), known in historiography as the Northern Zhou (), was a Xianbei-led dynasty of China that lasted from 557 to 581. One of the Northern dynasties of China's Northern and Southern dynasties period, it succeeded the Western Wei dynasty an ...
(557–581). After being rebuilt, it was destroyed again by an earthquake during the
Longqing Longqing () (9 February 1567 – 1 February 1573) was the era name of the Longqing Emperor, the 13th emperor of the Ming dynasty of China. Comparison table Other eras contemporaneous with Longqing * Vietnam ** ''Sùng Khang'' (崇康, 1568– ...
's years (1567–1572) of the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
. After another reconstruction, it was destroyed again during the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
of 1966–1976. The present structure was completed in 1987. * The
Huang Chao Huang Chao (835 – July 13, 884) was a Chinese smuggler, soldier, and rebel, and is most well known for being the leader of a major rebellion that severely weakened the Tang dynasty. Huang was a salt smuggler before joining Wang Xianzhi's ...
rebellion (874–884) devastated the city of
Chang'an Chang'an (; ) is the traditional name of Xi'an. The site had been settled since Neolithic times, during which the Yangshao culture was established in Banpo, in the city's suburbs. Furthermore, in the northern vicinity of modern Xi'an, Qin ...
, a historical capital of several ancient Chinese empires. The city was sacked and occupied by the rebels who looted and demolished the buildings, whose materials were then reused to build the subsequent capital city of
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...
. Chang'an never recovered after this obliteration, and it was followed by the decline of the
Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an Zhou dynasty (690–705), interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dyn ...
. Huang Chao's former lieutenant
Zhu Wen Emperor Taizu of Later Liang (), personal name Zhu Quanzhong () (December 5, 852 – July 18, 912), né Zhu Wen (), name later changed to Zhu Huang (), nickname Zhu San (朱三, literally, "the third Zhu"), was a Chinese military general, mona ...
completed the destruction by dismantling Chang'an and transporting the materials east to Luoyang. A medieval Chinese source claimed that Huang Chao killed 8 million people. Huang Chao's army in southern China committed the
Guangzhou massacre The Guangzhou massacre was a massacre of the inhabitants of the prosperous port city of Guangzhou in 878–879 by the rebel army of Huang Chao. Arab sources indicate that foreign victims, including Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians, num ...
against foreign Arab and Persian Muslim, Zoroastrian, Jewish and Christian merchants in 878-879 at the seaport and trading entrpot of
Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
. * During the systematic persecution of Buddhists in AD 845 by the
Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Tao ...
Emperor Wuzong of Tang Emperor Wuzong of Tang (July 2, 814 – April 22, 846), né Li Chan, later changed to Li Yan just before his death, was an emperor of the Tang Dynasty of China, reigning from 840 to 846. Emperor Wuzong is mainly known in modern times for the r ...
, more than 4,600 Buddhist temples were destroyed across the empire. * In 955, Emperor Shizong of the
Later Zhou Zhou, known as the Later Zhou (; ) in historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty and the last of the Five Dynasties that controlled most of northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Founded by Guo Wei ( ...
ordered the systematic destruction of Buddha statues due to the need for copper to mint coins. The ordinance led to the destruction of 3,336 of China's 6,030 Buddhist temples.four imperial persecutions of Buddhism in China
/ref> * In 1739, the Pagoda of Chengtian Temple was destroyed after a large earthquake struck the city of
Yinchuan Yinchuan (, ; ) is the capital of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, and was the capital of the Tangut-led Western Xia dynasty. It has an area of and a total population of 2,859,074 according to the 2020 Chinese census, and its built ...
. The pagoda was subsequently restored in 1820. * The
Porcelain Tower of Nanjing The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, part of the former Great Bao'en Temple, is a historical site located on the south bank of external Qinhuai River in Nanjing, China. It was a pagoda constructed in the 15th century during the Ming dynasty, but was ...
, which dates back to the 15th century, was destroyed during the course of the
Taiping Rebellion The Taiping Rebellion, also known as the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Revolution, was a massive rebellion and civil war that was waged in China between the Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Han, Hakka-led Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. It last ...
(1850–1864). A modern life-size replica was built in 2015. * In 1860, much of the
Old Summer Palace The Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan () or Yuanmingyuan Park, originally called the Imperial Gardens (), and sometimes called the Winter Palace, was a complex of palaces and gardens in present-day Haidian District, Beijing, China. ...
, a
Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
-era imperial palace, was set on fire and sacked during the
Second Opium War The Second Opium War (), also known as the Second Anglo-Sino War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a colonial war lasting from 1856 to 1860, which pitted the British Empire#Britain's imperial ...
. The palace was later sacked again and destroyed by the
Eight-Nation Alliance The Eight-Nation Alliance was a multinational military coalition that invaded northern China in 1900 with the stated aim of relieving the foreign legations in Beijing, then besieged by the popular Boxer militia, who were determined to remove fo ...
when they invaded
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
. *
Beijing city fortifications The Beijing city fortifications were walls with series of towers and gates constructed in the city of Beijing, China in the early 1400s until they were partially demolished in 1965 for the construction of the 2nd Ring Road and Line 2 of the Beiji ...
which date back to the 15th–16th century were destroyed through the course of the decline of the Qing dynasty in the late 19th to early 20th century. They were severely damaged during the
Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an Xenophobia, anti-foreign, anti-colonialism, anti-colonial, and Persecution of Christians#China, anti-Christian uprising in China ...
(1898–1901), with the gate towers and watchtowers destroyed and troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance tearing down much of the outer city walls. After the collapse of the Qing in 1912, and end of the Republic of China in 1949, the fortifications were dismantled to build modern ring roads around Beijing. Today, nothing of the Outer City remains intact. * In 1921, Buddhist murals at the
Mogao Caves The Mogao Caves, also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes or Caves of the Thousand Buddhas, form a system of 500 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu p ...
were damaged and vandalized by White Russian soldiers fleeing the
Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...
. * On 8 June 1928, the soldiers of warlord
Sun Dianying Sun Dianying (; 1889–1948) was a Chinese bandit leader, warlord, and National Revolutionary Army commander who fought in the Warlord Era, Second Sino-Japanese War, and Chinese Civil War, earning notoriety for changing sides multiple times in ...
ransacked Qing Imperial tombs including the tombs of
Empress Dowager Cixi Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese noblewoman, concubine and later regent who effectively controlled ...
and the
Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, born Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China proper, reigning from 1735 ...
. * Buddhist murals at the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves were damaged by the local Muslim population. The eyes and mouths in particular were often gouged out. Pieces of murals were also broken off for use as fertilizer by the locals. * During the
Kumul Rebellion The Kumul Rebellion (, "Hami Uprising") was a rebellion of Kumulik Uyghurs from 1931 to 1934 who conspired with Hui Chinese Muslim Gen. Ma Zhongying to overthrow Jin Shuren, governor of Xinjiang. The Kumul Uyghurs were loyalists of the Kumul ...
in Xinjiang in the 1930s, Buddhist murals were vandalized by Muslims. * Yongdingmen, the former front gate of the outer city wall of the Beijing city fortifications, which dates back to 1553, was demolished in the 1950s to make way for the new road system. It was rebuilt in 2005. * The Gate of China in
Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...
was demolished by the Chinese government in 1954 to make way for the expansion of
Tiananmen Square Tiananmen Square or Tian'anmen Square (; 天安门广场; Pinyin: ''Tiān'ānmén Guǎngchǎng''; Wade–Giles: ''Tʻien1-an1-mên2 Kuang3-chʻang3'') is a city square in the city center of Beijing, China, named after the eponymous Tiananm ...
. * A shrine dedicated to
Wei Yan Wei Yan () (died October 234), courtesy name Wenchang, was a Chinese military general and politician of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of China. Originally a subordinate of the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dyna ...
was destroyed by the Chinese government in 1968. A stone tablet which contained the record of his presence was lost after the demolition. The shrine was rebuilt in 1995. * During the
Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...
of the 1960s and 1970s, many artifacts, monuments, and buildings belonging to the
Four Olds The Four Olds or the Four Old Things () was a term used during the Cultural Revolution by the student-led Red Guards in the People's Republic of China in reference to the pre- communist elements of Chinese culture they attempted to destroy. The ...
were attacked and destroyed, including: **
White Horse Temple White Horse Temple () is a Buddhist temple in Luoyang, Henan that, according to tradition, is the first Buddhist temple in China, having been first established in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming in the Eastern Han dynasty. The site is ...
in
Luoyang Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the southeast, Nanyan ...
, the oldest Buddhist temple in China. Some historical artifacts are still missing. ** Famen Buddhist Temple,
Shaanxi Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
. ** Tomb and remains of Ming Emperor
Wanli Wanli was the era name of the Chinese Ming dynasty. Wanli may also refer to: *Wanli Emperor (1563–1620), the 14th emperor of the Chinese Ming dynasty * Wanli District, Nanchang, district of Nanchang, Jiangxi, China * Wanli District, New Taipei ...
and empresses. * According to anthropologist Robert E. Murowchick, a quarter million tombs have been raided since the 1990s to rob the antiquities which lay beneath them. Murowchick points out that growing demand for antiquities from both domestic and international markets have encouraged the tomb raiding in China. * China's aggressive development has resulted in the destruction of more than 30,000 items listed by the state administration of cultural heritage, compiled from various archaeological and historic sites. One conservation campaigner tells that the rate of destruction is worse than during the Cultural Revolution. Destroyed heritage sites include the old town in Dinghai, the old town of Laoximen in
Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...
, a centuries-old market street in
Qianmen Qianmen () is the colloquial name for Zhengyangmen (; Manchu:; Möllendorff:tob šun-i duka, literally meaning "Gate of the Zenith Sun"), a gate in Beijing's historic city wall. The gate is situated to the south of Tiananmen Square and once guar ...
, and a section of the
Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' wall") is a series of fortifications that were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against various nomadic grou ...
. Historical neighborhoods of Beijing and
Nanjing Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and t ...
were also razed. * The construction of the
Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downstream of the Three Gorges. The Three Gorges Dam has been the world' ...
on the
Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...
caused water levels to rise, destroying entire cities as well as many historical locations along the river. * In 2016, the Chinese government ordered the demolition of historical housings in the Larung Gar
Tibetan Tibetan may mean: * of, from, or related to Tibet * Tibetan people, an ethnic group * Tibetan language: ** Classical Tibetan, the classical language used also as a contemporary written standard ** Standard Tibetan, the most widely used spoken diale ...
Buddhist institution. * By 2017, the old town of
Kashgar Kashgar ( ug, قەشقەر, Qeshqer) or Kashi ( zh, c=喀什) is an oasis city in the Tarim Basin region of Southern Xinjiang. It is one of the westernmost cities of China, near the border with Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Pakistan. ...
had been destroyed by the Chinese government, and replaced by a significantly smaller and lower-quality "theme park" version of the site. * During the
2020 China floods In early June 2020, heavy rains caused by the regional rainy season led to floods severely affecting large areas of southern China including the Yangtze basin and its tributaries. Rains and floods extended to central and eastern China during ...
, multiple historic bridges were destroyed, including the Lecheng Bridge and the Zhenhai Bridge.


India

*In 1024, during the reign of
Bhima I Bhima I (r. c. 1022–1064 CE) was a Chaulukya king who ruled parts of present-day Gujarat, India. The early years of his reign saw an invasion from the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud, who sacked the Somnath temple. Bhima left his capital and too ...
, the prominent
Afghan Afghan may refer to: *Something of or related to Afghanistan, a country in Southern-Central Asia *Afghans, people or citizens of Afghanistan, typically of any ethnicity **Afghan (ethnonym), the historic term applied strictly to people of the Pash ...
ruler
Mahmud of Ghazni Yamīn-ud-Dawla Abul-Qāṣim Maḥmūd ibn Sebüktegīn ( fa, ; 2 November 971 – 30 April 1030), usually known as Mahmud of Ghazni or Mahmud Ghaznavi ( fa, ), was the founder of the Turkic Ghaznavid dynasty, ruling from 998 to 1030. At t ...
raided
Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, plundered and destroyed the Somnath temple and broke its ''
jyotirlinga A Jyotirlinga () or Jyotirlingam, is a devotional representation of the Hindu god Shiva. The word is a Sanskrit compound of ('radiance') and ('sign'). The Śiva Mahāpurāṇam (also ''Shiva Purana'') mentions 64 original ''jyotirlinga'' s ...
''. In 1299,
Alauddin Khalji Alaud-Dīn Khaljī, also called Alauddin Khilji or Alauddin Ghilji (), born Ali Gurshasp, was an emperor of the Khalji dynasty that ruled the Delhi Sultanate in the Indian subcontinent. Alauddin instituted a number of significant administrativ ...
's army under the leadership of
Ulugh Khan Almas Beg (died c. 1302), better known by his title Ulugh Khan, was a brother and a general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He held the iqta' of Bayana in present-day India. Ulugh Khan played an important role in Alauddin's as ...
defeated Karandev II of the
Vaghela dynasty The Vaghela dynasty were an offshoot vassal clan connected to the Chaulukya (Solanki) dynasty, ruling Gujarat in the 13th century CE. Their capital was Dholka. They were the last Hindu dynasty to rule Gujarat before the Muslim conquest of ...
, and sacked the (rebuilt) Somnath temple. By 1665, the rebuilt temple was once again ordered destroyed by Mughal emperor
Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...
. In 1702, he ordered that if
Hindus Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
had revived worship there, it should be demolished completely. *In 1323, when the
Kakatiya dynasty The Kakatiya dynasty (IAST: Kākatīya) was an Indian dynasty that ruled most of eastern Deccan region comprising present day Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and parts of eastern Karnataka and southern Odisha between 12th and 14th centuries. T ...
refused to pay tribute to the
Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate was an Islamic empire based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for 320 years (1206–1526).
,
Ulugh Khan Almas Beg (died c. 1302), better known by his title Ulugh Khan, was a brother and a general of the Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khalji. He held the iqta' of Bayana in present-day India. Ulugh Khan played an important role in Alauddin's as ...
under orders from his father and sultan
Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, Ghiyas-ud-din Tughlaq ) (Ghazi means 'fighter for Islam')ref name="sen2"> (died c.1325) was the Sultan of Delhi from 1320 to 1325. He was the first sultan of the Tughluq dynasty. During his reign, Ghiyath al-Din Tughl ...
laid siege to the Warangal Fort and destroyed it. *Around 1200 CE, the most prominent seats of learning in
Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by ...
, Nalanda University,
Buddhist Monasteries Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...
and Educational centers of
Vikramasila Vikramashila (Sanskrit: विक्रमशिला, IAST: , Bengali:- বিক্রমশিলা, Romanisation:- Bikrômôśilā ) was one of the three most important Buddhist monasteries in India during the Pala Empire, along with N ...
and
Odantapuri Odantapuri (also called Odantapura or Uddandapura) was a prominent Buddhist Mahavihara in what is now Bihar Sharif in Bihar, India. It is believed to have been established by the Pala ruler Gopala I in the 8th century. It is considered the secon ...
were sacked and destroyed by
Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
ruler
Muhammad bin Bakhtiyar Khalji Ikhtiyār al-Dīn Muḥammad Bakhtiyār Khaljī, (Pashto :اختيار الدين محمد بختيار غلزۍ, fa, اختیارالدین محمد بختیار خلجی, bn, ইখতিয়ারউদ্দীন মুহম্মদ � ...
. *The famous
Martand Sun Temple The Martand Sun Temple is a Hindu temple located near the city of Anantnag in the Kashmir Valley of Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), India. It dates back to the eighth century AD and was dedicated to Surya, the chief solar deity in Hindu ...
, located in
Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...
, was destroyed by the
Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
Sultan Sikandar Butshikan in the early 15th century, with demolition lasting a year. *In 1565 CE, after the
Battle of Talikota The Battle of Talikota (23 January 1565) was a watershed battle fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and an alliance of the Deccan sultanates. The battle resulted in the defeat of Aliya Rama Raya which led to the eventual collapse of the poli ...
, the capital city of
Vijayanagara Vijayanagara () was the capital city of the historic Vijayanagara Empire. Located on the banks of the Tungabhadra River, it spread over a large area and included the modern era Group of Monuments at Hampi site in Vijayanagara district, Bell ...
, with all its temples, palaces, mansions and monuments, was sacked and destroyed by an invading army raised by the five
Bahamani Sultanate The Bahmani Sultanate, or Deccan, was a Persianate Sunni Muslim Indian Kingdom located in the Deccan region. It was the first independent Muslim kingdom of the Deccan,
s. What remains now are the ruins of
Hampi Hampi or Hampe, also referred to as the Group of Monuments at Hampi, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Hampi town, Vijayanagara district, east-central Karnataka, India. Hampi was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire in the 14th&n ...
. *In 1664, Aurangzeb destroyed the
Kashi Vishwanath Mandir The Kashi Vishwanath Temple is a famous Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. It is located in Vishwanath Gali of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in India. The temple stands on the western bank of the holy river Ganga, and is one of the twelve Jyot ...
and built the
Gyanvapi Mosque The Gyanvapi Mosque is located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was constructed by Aurangzeb in 1669 upon demolition of an older Shiva temple. Pre-mosque history Vishweshwar temple The site had a Vishweshwar temple devoted to the H ...
over its walls. The remnants of the temple wall can still be seen today, as was depicted in the 19th century sketch by
James Prinsep James Prinsep FRS (20 August 1799 – 22 April 1840) was an English scholar, orientalist and antiquary. He was the founding editor of the ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'' and is best remembered for deciphering the Kharosthi and B ...
.
Christian mission A Christian mission is an organized effort for the propagation of the Christian faith. Missions involve sending individuals and groups across boundaries, most commonly geographical boundaries, to carry on evangelism or other activities, such as ...
ary Edwin Greaves (1909), of the
London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...
, described the site as follows: "At the back of the
mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
and in continuation of it are some broken remains of what was probably the old Bishwanath
Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
. It must have been a right noble building; there is nothing finer, in the way of architecture in the whole city, than this scrap. A few pillars inside the mosque appear to be very old also." *In 1696, the Madrasa Mahmud Gawan of
Bidar Bidar (/ biːd̪ər/) is a city in the north-eastern part of Karnataka state in India. It is the headquarters of Bidar district, which borders Maharashtra and Telangana. It is a rapidly urbanising city in the wider ''Bidar Metropolitan area ...
was struck by lightning and a part of it was destroyed. *On 6 December 1992, the
Babri Masjid Babri Masjid ( IAST: Bābarī Masjid; meaning ''Mosque of Babur'') was a mosque in Ayodhya, India, at a site believed by many Hindus to be the birthplace of Hindu deity Rama. It has been a focus of dispute between the Hindu and Muslim commun ...
was destroyed by
Hindu nationalists Hindu nationalism has been collectively referred to as the expression of social and political thought, based on the native spiritual and cultural traditions of the Indian subcontinent. "Hindu nationalism" or the correct term ''Hindū rāṣ� ...
*On 26 April 2016, the
National Museum of Natural History, New Delhi The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) was a museum focusing on nature, located in New Delhi, India. Established in 1972 and opened in 1978, the museum functioned under the Ministry of Environment and Forests of the government of India. T ...
and its valuable collection of animal fossils and stuffed animals was destroyed by fire.


Indonesia

* Kraton Majapahit, the royal palace of
Majapahit Majapahit ( jv, ꦩꦗꦥꦲꦶꦠ꧀; ), also known as Wilwatikta ( jv, ꦮꦶꦭ꧀ꦮꦠꦶꦏ꧀ꦠ; ), was a Javanese Hindu-Buddhist thalassocratic empire in Southeast Asia that was based on the island of Java (in modern-day Indonesia ...
emperors, was destroyed in a rebellion. What remained of the palace and fortifications around it was further looted by treasure hunters during the Dutch colonial era. *The original
Gambir railway station Gambir Train Station ( id, Stasiun Gambir, station code: GMR) is a major railway station in Gambir, Gambir, Central Jakarta, Jakarta, Indonesia. The station is located on the eastern side of Merdeka Square. It was built during the Dutch Ea ...
. Demolished in 1988 due making new overpass line. * In 2016 it was discovered that the wrecks of cruiser HNLMS ''Java'', HNLMS ''De Ruyter'', HMS ''Exeter'', destroyer HNLMS ''Kortenaer'', HMS ''Electra'', HMS ''Encounter'' and USS ''Pope'' which are located in the
Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its no ...
have been destroyed by illegal salvage operations. * The roof that covers the line 1 and 2 was demolished in 2019 due to expansion of the Jatinegara Station. The original station still remains.


Iran

*In 330 BC,
Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...
sent the main force of his army to
Persepolis , native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type ...
by the Royal Road and destroyed it. *During the reign of
Naser al-Din Shah Qajar Naser al-Din Shah Qajar ( fa, ناصرالدین‌شاه قاجار; 16 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. He was the son of Mohammad Shah Qajar and Malek ...
, the Nahavand castle was ruined hoping to find treasures beneath.


Iraq

* The
Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tre ...
, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, are believed to have been destroyed sometime after the 1st century AD. Their existence is not confirmed by archaeology, and there have been suggestions that the gardens were purely mythical. * The Round City of Baghdad, the seat of the
Abbasid caliph The Abbasid caliphs were the holders of the Islamic title of caliph who were members of the Abbasid dynasty, a branch of the Quraysh tribe descended from the uncle of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, Al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib. The family came ...
, was sacked by the
Mongol The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal member ...
s led by Hulegu in 1258. Large section of the city as well as irrigation system and the
House of Wisdom The House of Wisdom ( ar, بيت الحكمة, Bayt al-Ḥikmah), also known as the Grand Library of Baghdad, refers to either a major Abbasid public academy and intellectual center in Baghdad or to a large private library belonging to the Abba ...
, a library and intellectual center, were destroyed. The city was attacked again by
Tamerlane Timur ; chg, ''Aqsaq Temür'', 'Timur the Lame') or as ''Sahib-i-Qiran'' ( 'Lord of the Auspicious Conjunction'), his epithet. ( chg, ''Temür'', 'Iron'; 9 April 133617–19 February 1405), later Timūr Gurkānī ( chg, ''Temür Kür ...
in 1401, leading to the almost destruction. * Several historical gates of Baghdad dating back to the 12th century were demolished by the occupying Allied and Ottoman forces during the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. * Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, various archaeological sites and museums have been looted, including the ancient cities of Adab,
Hatra Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ‎ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul. Hatra was a strongly fortifi ...
and
Isin Isin (, modern Arabic: Ishan al-Bahriyat) is an archaeological site in Al-Qādisiyyah Governorate, Iraq. Excavations have shown that it was an important city-state in the past. History of archaeological research Ishan al-Bahriyat was visited ...
where U.S. military protection was absent. The most prominent among them being the
Iraq Museum The Iraq Museum ( ar, المتحف العراقي) is the national museum of Iraq, located in Baghdad. It is sometimes informally called the National Museum of Iraq, a recent phenomenon influenced by other nations' naming of their national museum ...
where as much as 170,000 items were looted, including the 5,000 year old statues. In addition, several sites such as
Babylon ''Bābili(m)'' * sux, 𒆍𒀭𒊏𒆠 * arc, 𐡁𐡁𐡋 ''Bāḇel'' * syc, ܒܒܠ ''Bāḇel'' * grc-gre, Βαβυλών ''Babylṓn'' * he, בָּבֶל ''Bāvel'' * peo, 𐎲𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎽𐎢 ''Bābiru'' * elx, 𒀸𒁀𒉿𒇷 ''Babi ...
saw the destruction of its archaeology-rich subsoil as a result of military planning. * During the civil war ensued the 2003 invasion, several historical sites were destroyed by various groups. In 2006 and 2007,
Al-Askari Mosque , native_name_lang = ara , image = Al-Asakari Mosque 4.jpg , image_upright = 1.4 , alt = , caption = Al-Asakari Mosque in January 2017 , map_type = Iraq , map_size = 240 , map_alt = , map_relief = 1 , map_caption = Location in Iraq , ...
was bombed by Sunni militants twice in the course of two years. In 2006, the Minaret of Anah and the statue of
Al-Mansur Abū Jaʿfar ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad al-Manṣūr (; ar, أبو جعفر عبد الله بن محمد المنصور‎; 95 AH – 158 AH/714 CE – 6 October 775 CE) usually known simply as by his laqab Al-Manṣūr (المنصور) ...
were bombed by Shia militant and destroyed. All the aforementioned buildings were later reconstructed. * The
Islamic State of Iraq and Syria An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term ' ...
(ISIS) destroyed much of the cultural heritage in the areas it controlled in
Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
. At least 28 religious buildings were looted and destroyed, including Shiite mosques, tombs, shrines and churches. In addition, numerous ancient and medieval sites and artifacts, including the ancient cities of
Nimrud Nimrud (; syr, ܢܢܡܪܕ ar, النمرود) is an ancient Assyrian city located in Iraq, south of the city of Mosul, and south of the village of Selamiyah ( ar, السلامية), in the Nineveh Plains in Upper Mesopotamia. It was a m ...
and
Hatra Hatra ( ar, الحضر; syr, ‎ܚܛܪܐ) was an ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia located in present-day eastern Nineveh Governorate in northern Iraq. The city lies northwest of Baghdad and southwest of Mosul. Hatra was a strongly fortifi ...
, parts of the wall of
Nineveh Nineveh (; akk, ; Biblical Hebrew: '; ar, نَيْنَوَىٰ '; syr, ܢܝܼܢܘܹܐ, Nīnwē) was an ancient Assyrian city of Upper Mesopotamia, located in the modern-day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is located on the eastern ba ...
, the ruins of
Bash Tapia Castle Bash Tapia Castle, (Arabic: باشطابيا) also known as Bashtabiya Castle or Pashtabia Castle, is a ruined 12th-century castle located on the western bank of the Tigris river, forming part of the city wall of Mosul, Iraq. It was partially d ...
and Dair Mar Elia, and artifacts from the
Mosul Museum The Mosul Museum ( ar, متحف الموصل) is the second largest museum in Iraq after the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. It was heavily looted during the 2003 Iraq War. Founded in 1952, the museum consisted of a small hall until a new bu ...
were also destroyed.


Israel and Palestine

* The First Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the
Neo-Babylonian Empire The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC and bei ...
in 587 BCE, and the
Second Temple The Second Temple (, , ), later known as Herod's Temple, was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem between and 70 CE. It replaced Solomon's Temple, which had been built at the same location in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited ...
by the
Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Roman Republic, Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings aro ...
in 70 CE. *Following the
conquest Conquest is the act of military subjugation of an enemy by force of arms. Military history provides many examples of conquest: the Roman conquest of Britain, the Mauryan conquest of Afghanistan and of vast areas of the Indian subcontinent, ...
of the
Old City of Jerusalem The Old City of Jerusalem ( he, הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, translit=ha-ir ha-atiqah; ar, البلدة القديمة, translit=al-Balda al-Qadimah; ) is a walled area in East Jerusalem. The Old City is traditionally divided into ...
by the
Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of independent Jordan, with a final Arabization of its command taking place in 1 ...
in 1948, under the Jordanian annexation,
Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
sites were systematically damaged and destroyed. In particular, all but one of the thirty-five synagogues of the Jewish Quarter were destroyed. * Following
Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
's victory during the 1967 Six-Day War the
Israeli military The Israel Defense Forces (IDF; he, צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל , ), alternatively referred to by the Hebrew-language acronym (), is the national military of the State of Israel. It consists of three service branch ...
destroyed a large part of the Moroccan Quarter in Jerusalem's Old Town to make room for a plaza in front of the
Western Wall The Western Wall ( he, הַכּוֹתֶל הַמַּעֲרָבִי, HaKotel HaMa'aravi, the western wall, often shortened to the Kotel or Kosel), known in the West as the Wailing Wall, and in Islam as the Buraq Wall (Arabic: حَائِط ...
. * The Baptist Church of Jerusalem in Narkis Street was burned down by Zionism, Jewish Nationalists in 1982, and subjected to an arson attack in 2007. *In 1996, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf began unauthorized construction on the Temple Mount, damaging ancient structures and weakening the stability of the Southern Wall. 300 truckloads of topsoil were excavated and dumped in the Kidron Valley without permitting proper archaeological care. (See Temple Mount Sifting Project). *In 2015, in one of a series of attacks on churches in Israel and the West Bank by Jewish religious terrorism, Jewish extremist groups, a former settler on the West Bank torched and set fire to the Church of the Multiplication in Tabgha on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in Northern District (Israel), northern Israel. This was the church where some Christians believe Jesus to have carried out his miracle of the Feeding the multitude, feeding of the 5000. *Joseph's Tomb in the Nablus, city of Nablus has been repeatedly vandalized, with Palestinians, Palestinian mobs burning and pillaging it immediately after the withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces, Israeli forces in 2000, in 2003, and in 2009, when the tomb was vandalized with graffiti including swastikas. The tomb was vandalized again by Palestinian rioters in 2015 and 2022.


Japan

*The majority of Japanese castles were Japanese_castle#Meiji_Restoration, smashed and destroyed in the late 19th century in the Meiji restoration by the Japanese people and government in order to modernize and westernize Japan and break from their past feudal era of the Daimyo and Shoguns. It was only due to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan that concrete replicas of those castles were built for tourists. The vast majority of castles in Japan today are new replicas made out of concrete. In 1959 a concrete keep was built for Nagoya castle. *An earth wall with uneven stones made up the original base of Komine Castle before it collapsed in the 1970s due to rain. The Japanese local government repaired it with concrete and the entire section of the repaired wall was destroyed by the earthquake in 2011 due to using concrete. The Japanese government then begged for photographs of the original wall from local citizens as they had no idea what it looked like to repair it to its original state. *The destroyed Kumamoto Castle, Fushimi Castle, Hiroshima Castle were rebuilt with concrete after World War II and Tokyo_Imperial_Palace#The_Old_palace, Tokyo Imperial Palace was rebuilt after World War II. Kinkaku-ji was rebuilt after a monk burned it down. Kyoto Imperial Palace was rebuilt in 1855. *The Japanese used mostly concrete in 1934 to rebuild the Togetsukyo Bridge, unlike the original destroyed wooden version of the bridge from 836. *Japanese had to look at old paintings in order to find out what the Horyuji temple used to look like when they rebuilt it. *During the Meiji restoration's Shinbutsu bunri, tens of thousands of Japanese Buddhist religious idols and temples were smashed and destroyed. Japan then closed and shut done tens of thousands of traditional old Shinto shrines in the Shrine Consolidation Policy and the Meiji government built the new modern List of the Fifteen Shrines of the Kenmu Restoration, 15 shrines of the Kenmu restoration as a political move to link the Meiji restoration to the Kenmu restoration for their new State Shinto cult. *Japanese building company Kongō Gumi started using CAD software and concrete with wood to build temples after the Meiji restoration. *The Japanese built a Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Kannon) statue out of concrete at a temple Ryozen Kannon in Kyoto which was constructed after World War II. *The Japanese in 1958 used concrete to rebuild the Kannon-do temple at the Senso-ji Temple in Toko after it was destroyed in 1945 in World War II. *Kumamoto Castle, Kumamoto: Seriously damaged in 1877 during the Siege of Kumamoto Castle, part of the larger Satsuma Rebellion; subsequently rebuilt in the 1960s, with further historical restoration work completed from 1998 to 2008. The castle was again seriously damaged during 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, with the required rebuilding effort estimated to take several decades. *Shuri Castle, a palace of the Ryukyu Kingdom first built in the 14th century, was destroyed during the Battle of Okinawa in World War II. The Japanese forces had set up a defense perimeter which goes through the underground of the castle. U.S. military targeted this location by shelling with the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41) for three days in May 1945. The castle burned down subsequently after. It was later reconstructed in the 1990s. On the morning of 31 October 2019, the main courtyard structures of the castle were again destroyed in a fire. *The Kinkaku-ji (Golden Pavilion) of Kyoto was burnt down by an arsonist in 1950, but was restored in 1955. *A large number of Important Cultural Property (Japan), Important Cultural Property, libraries, museums, and other archives were damaged or destroyed by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. *Blood tax riots, the Japanese Meiji government brutally put down revolts by Japanese samurai angry that the traditional Untouchability, untouchable status of burakumin was legally revoked. *chonmage, under the Meiji Restoration, the practices of the samurai classes, deemed feudal and unsuitable for modern times following the end of in 1853, resulted in a number of edicts intended to 'modernise' the appearance of upper class Japanese men. With the Dampatsurei Edict of 1871 issued by Emperor Meiji during the early Meiji Era, men of the samurai classes were forced to cut their hair short, effectively abandoning the .


Malaysia

*Candi Number 11 also known as Candi Sungai Batu Estate, a 1,200 year old ruin of a tomb-temple located in the Bujang Valley historical complex in Kedah was demolished in 2013 by housing developers who claimed not to have known the historical significance of the stone edifice.


Maldives

*On 7 February 2012, in the aftermath of the 2011–2012 Maldives political crisis, coup in which Mohamed Nasheed was toppled as President of the Maldives, President, the National Museum was stormed by Islamism, Islamists who destroyed Buddhism, Buddhist artifacts. Most of Maldive's Buddhist physical history was obliterated. Hindus, Hindu artifacts were also targeted for obliteration and the actions have been compared to the attacks on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, Buddhas by the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
.


Myanmar

*Shwedagon Pagoda, Shwedagon Paya temple complex in Yangon, built c. 6th and 10th centuries AD, was severely damaged after Cyclone Nargis passed the region in 2008, which caused the worst natural disaster in the recorded history of Myanmar.


Nepal

*The 7.8 April 2015 Nepal earthquake, Nepal earthquake in 2015 demolished heritages in Kathmandu Valley, Kathmandu valley. It destroyed centuries old medieval temples and palaces in the Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan, Nepal, Patan Durbar Squares along with the tower of Dharahara, the temple of Changunarayan, some temples of the Pashupatinath Temple, Pahupatinath complex, the main stupa of Boudhanath and the temples of Swayambhunath, Swayambhunath Stupa.


Pakistan

*The Archaeological site of Harappa which dates back to 2600 BCE was heavily damaged during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Bricks from the ruins were brought out and used as track ballast during the construction of History of rail transport in Pakistan#Early development (1855–1870), Lahore–Multan railway line. Since the discovery, the site was constantly being damaged by the local farmers in the process of turning it into an agriculture land. *Sun Temple of Multan, a grand Hindu temple dedicated to the Sun deity built in 614 CE or earlier, was destroyed in the late 10th century by Ismaili rulers and a mosque was built atop it, which was also destroyed in the 11th century by Mahmud of Ghazni. The ruins of the temple exist in modern day Multan, Pakistan. *Prahladpuri Temple, Multan, was destroyed by a Muslim mob in 1992 in the aftermath of Babri mosque destruction in neighboring India. *Shaheed Ganj Mosque in Lahore was demolished by the Sikhs in 1935. Sikhs had been occupying the public square near the mosque since the capture of Lahore by Bhangi Misl in the 18th century. The conflict concerning the
mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
had heightened during the British Raj, colonial era, as Muslims were forbidden to pray there by the mosque administration. The demolishing of the mosque had led to the Muslims protesters holding marches toward the mosque, which was dispersed by the police opening fire on them. *Looters and the
Taliban The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
destroyed much of Buddhism in Pakistan, Pakistan's Buddhist artifacts left over from the Gandhara, Buddhist Gandhara civilization especially in Swat Valley. Gandhara Buddhist relics were deliberately targeted by the Taliban for destruction, and illegally looted by smugglers. Kushan Empire, Kushan era Buddhist stupas and statues in Swat valley, including the Jehanabad Gautama Buddha, Buddha's face, were demolished by the Taliban. The government was criticized for doing nothing to safeguard the statue after the initial attempt at destroying the Buddha, which did not cause permanent harm, and when the second attack took place on the statue the feet, shoulders, and face were demolished. A rehabilitation attempt on the Buddha was made by Luca Olivieri and a group from Italy.


Philippines

* During the Spanish Colonization of the Philippine islands, the Spanish observed native structures called ''Kota'' or citadels made of large wooden houses or lime stones which made up the ancient cosmopolitan city-states of Luzon , Visayas and even in Mindanao. * The City of Cainta (historical polity), Cainta was a fortified city. According to the descriptions by early Spanish chroniclers, it was surrounded by bamboo thickets, defended by a Lumber, log wall, stone Bastion, bulwarks and several lantakas, and an arm of the Pasig river flowed through the middle of the city, dividing it into two settlements. with a population with about a thousand inhabitants, and was surrounded by very tall and very dense bamboo thickets, and fortified with a wall and a few small culverins. The same river as that of Manila circles around the village and a branch of it passes through the middle dividing it in two sections. As described in the anonymous 1572 account documented in Volume 3 of Blair and Robertson's compiled translations: In August 1571, Miguel Lopez de Legazpi assigned his nephew, Juan de Salcedo, to "pacify" Cainta. After travelling several days upriver, Salcedo lay siege to the city, and eventually found a weak spot on the wall. The final Spanish attack over 400 residents of Cainta killed including their leader Gat Maitan. * Maynila (historical polity), Kota Selurong was the Defensive walls, walled city of Manila along the south bank of the Pasig River. Kota Seludong, the seat of the power of the Seludong, Kingdom of Maynila that was protected by a rammed earth fortress equipped with stockades, battlements and cannons. the Kota were destroyed in 1570 Battle of Manila (1570), siege, after the Spanish forces invaded the city. Spanish accounts claim that Martin de Goiti ordered his men to set the city in fire. *During the Battle of Manila (1945), Battle of Manila in 1945, most of the city's unique architecture was destroyed. After the battle, in the business district, only two buildings dating to before the war remained intact, and these buildings' plumbing had been looted. After the war ended, much of Manila was rebuilt in a modernist style, and thus the original architectural heritage of the city is largely lost. *Manila Jai Alai Building, a historic jai alai venue demolished in 2000 which was opposed by heritage conservationists. The demolition led to the passage of the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009. *Several historic buildings were damaged or destroyed during the 2013 Bohol earthquake, including the Loboc Church, the Loon Church, the Maribojoc Church and the Baclayon Church. *The Philippine Su Kuang Institute building was demolished in 2017 after the owners sold the building to a private developer within the same year. The 1940s was the last Art deco architecture, Art Deco wooden school structure in Binondo, Manila.


Saudi Arabia

* Various mosques and other historic sites, especially those relating to early Islam, have been destroyed in Saudi Arabia. Apart from early Islamic sites, other buildings such as the Ajyad Fortress were also destroyed. This is done for economic reasons, to create room to accommodate hajj pilgrims (including luxury facilities for wealthy guests), as well as for ideological reasons related to the iconoclasm, iconoclastic religious doctrine of the state Wahhabi sect. *Ajyad Fortress of the Ottomans demolished for commercial development of the Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower.


Singapore

* The Singapore Stone was blown up in 1843 to make way for Fort Fullerton.


South Korea

* Hwangnyongsa, a massive Buddhist temple in Gyeongju which dates back to the 7th century, was burned down by the Mongolians during their invasion in 1238. * Hundreds of Buddhist monasteries were shut down or destroyed during the Joseon dynasty, Joseon period as a part of Korean Buddhism#Suppression under the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), anti-Buddhism policy. In 1407, during the reign of Taejong of Joseon, Taejong, the regulations were imposed on the number of Buddhist temples which limited to 88. Sejong the Great further reduced the number to 36. Many Buddhist statues were also destroyed during the reign of Jungjong of Joseon, Jungjong (1506–1544). *Namdaemun was damaged by fire caused by arson in 2008. It reopened in 2013. *In March 2021, a main hall of the historic Naejangsan temple in Jeongeup, was burned into ashes by a 53-year-old monk arsonist.


Sri Lanka

* The Palace of King Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa was set into fire by the Kalinga Magha lead Indian invaders in the 11th century. The ruins and the effect of the fire is still visible. * The Library of Jaffna, which had over 97,000 manuscripts, was Burning of Jaffna library, burned in 1981, as a part of the Sri Lankan war.


Syria

*The Aleppo Codex, the authoritative Hebrew Bible text, was partially destroyed during 1947 anti-Jewish riots in Aleppo, anti-Jewish riots in Syria in 1947. *Much of Culture of Syria, Syria's cultural heritage was damaged, destroyed, or looted during the Syrian Civil War. Destroyed buildings include the minaret of the Great Mosque of Aleppo and the Al-Madina Souq, while others such as Krak des Chevaliers were damaged. *Khusruwiyah Mosque (Husrev Mosque). * The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) destroyed the Lion of Al-lāt, the temples of Temple of Bel, Bel and Temple of Baalshamin, Baalshamin, the Arch of Triumph (Palmyra), Arch of Triumph, and other sites in Palmyra. The group also destroyed the Monastery of St. Elian, the Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, Der Zor, Armenian Genocide Memorial Church, and several ancient sculptures in the city of Raqqa. * During the Turkish military operation in Afrin in 2018, Turkey, Turkish shelling seriously damaged the Ain Dara (archaeological site), ancient temple of Ain Dara in Afrin, Syria, Afrin.


Thailand

In June 1932 in Siam—now Thailand—a Siamese revolution of 1932, revolution overthrew 700 years of absolute monarchy. A political structure based on a constitution that required non-royal governments elected by the people, was introduced. On 10 December 1936, the first post-revolution prime minister, Phraya Phahonphonphayuhasena, Phraya Phahon, held a small ceremony to embed a small plaque the size of a dinner plate into the ground at the spot, in front of Bangkok's Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, where he had first announced the end of the absolute monarchy. The inscription on it read: "Here on 24 June 1932 at dawn, the People's Party proclaimed a constitution for the country's advancement." Eighty years later, sometime between 2–8 April 2017, the democracy plaque was replaced by a new plaque. Its message read: "To love and respect the Buddhist trinity, one's own state, one's own family, and to have a heart faithful to your monarch, will bring prosperity to the country". Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha dismissed the theft and replacement of the plaque as unimportant. The police insisted they could not investigate the plaque's disappearance because they did not know who owned the plaque. Investigation stalled as all 11 CCTV cameras in the area had been removed days before the plaque was taken. On 20 September 2020, a new updated version of the plaque was installed by democracy activists at Sanam Luang. Within a day of its installation it was removed by persons unknown.


Turkey

* The Library of Antioch was ordered destroyed by the Roman emperor, Roman Emperor Jovian (emperor), Jovian in 363 AD. * The Temple of Artemis, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, was destroyed by arson in 356 BC. It was later rebuilt, but was damaged in a raid by Goths in 268 AD. Its stones were subsequently used in other buildings. A few fragments of the structure still survive ''in situ''. * The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, another Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Wonder of the Ancient World, was destroyed by a series of earthquakes between the 12th and 15th centuries. Most of the remaining marble blocks were burnt into lime, but some were used in the construction of Bodrum Castle by the Knights Hospitaller, where they can still be seen today. The only other surviving remains of the mausoleum are some foundations ''in situ'', a few sculptures in the
British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
, and some marble blocks which were used to build a dockyard in Malta's Grand Harbour *Port city of Izmir (Smyrna) during the Great fire of Smyrna in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922), Greco-Turkish war. * The abandonment and confiscation of Armenian monasteries and cultural heritage in places such as Ani contributed to their eventual destruction. In 1974,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
stated that after 1923, out of 913 Armenian historical monuments left in Eastern Anatolia Region, Eastern Turkey, 464 had vanished completely, 252 were in ruins, and 197 needed repair. In 2011, there were 34 List of active Armenian churches in Turkey, Armenian churches functioning in Turkey, primarily in Istanbul.


Turkmenistan

* The Church of the Transfiguration, Ashgabat, Church of the Transfiguration in Ashgabat was destroyed in 1932 by the Government of the Soviet Union, Soviet Government. *The country's only Baháʼí House of Worship, Bahá’í Temple, in Ashgabat (called Ishqabad by its followers) which was completed in 1908 was later destroyed in 1962 after being damages in the 1948 Ashgabat earthquake, 1948 Earthquake.


Europe


Albania

*Sulejman Pasha Mosque, the dome and mosque were destroyed during World War II, while its minaret remained until 1967, when the People's Socialist Republic of Albania, communist regime of Enver Hoxha built a Unknown Soldier (statue), war memorial in its place. Many religious sites have also been destroyed over the years.


Austria

*Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, Cathedral of St. Stephen was severely damaged by fire in 1945, towards the end of the Second World War. Incendiary bombs and shelling had set the roof on fire, and the cathedral's original larch girders, said to be made from an entire forest of larches, were destroyed, as were the Rollinger choir stalls, carved in 1487. The building was rebuilt soon after the war.


Belgium

* The Coudenberg, Palace of Coudenberg in Brussels burned down in 1731 and its ruins were demolished half a century later. * Many churches and abbeys were demolished during the War of the First Coalition, French occupation in the late 18th century, amongst them the St. Lambert's Cathedral, Liège, St. Lambert's Cathedral in Liège, the St. Donatian's Cathedral and Eekhout Abbey in Bruges, Florennes Abbey in Florennes, and St. Michael's Abbey, Antwerp, St. Michael's Abbey in Antwerp. * The Herkenrode Abbey in Hasselt survived the French Revolution, but subsequently fell into disrepair. In 1826 a fire destroyed much of the church, and the remaining ruins were demolished in 1844. * On 25 August 1914, during World War I, the university library of Leuven was The Rape of Belgium, destroyed by the Germans. 230,000 volumes were lost, including medieval and Renaissance manuscripts and more than 1,000 Incunable, incunabula. After the war, a new library was built. During World War II, the new building was again set on fire and nearly a million books were lost. * During World War I, the city of Ypres was destroyed, including its ''Town Hall'' and ''Ypres Cloth Hall, Cloth Hall''. These monuments were later rebuilt. * The ''Maison du Peuple (Brussels), Maison du Peuple'' in Brussels, one of the largest works of architect Victor Horta, was demolished in 1965 to make way for an office building. The surviving buildings designed by Horta were Major Town Houses of the Architect Victor Horta (Brussels), declared UNESCO World Heritage in 2000. * Château Miranda, a 19th century neo-Gothic castle in Celles was demolished in 2016-17. * The Valemprez farm, a 13th century farmhouse rebuilt in the 18th century in Dottignies. It was demolished in 2008


Bosnia and Herzegovina

* Through the course of the Bosnian War, numerous sites of cultural and religious heritage were destroyed: ** In the Bosnian War during the Siege of Sarajevo, culturcide was committed by Army of Republika Srpska. The National and University Library of Bosnia and Herzegovina was specifically targeted and besieged by cannons positioned all around the city and it was destroyed in the fire, along with 80 percent of its contents. Some 3 million books destroyed, along with hundreds of original documents from the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. **Muslim heritage sites suffered the most, with 614 mosques and several other religious facilities, schools, and institutions destroyed by the authorities of the Republic of Srpska as a part of the ethnic cleansing campaign against the local Muslim populations. The most well known among them include Mehmed Pasha Kukavica Mosque, Arnaudija Mosque, and Ferhat Pasha Mosque (Banja Luka), Ferhat Pasha Mosque. A substantial proportion of these mosques date back to the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austro-Hungarian era. **Roman Catholic sites also suffered with more than 269 churches being destroyed, which was associated with the killings of Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Croats, mostly by Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosnian Serbs. **As many as 125 Serbian Orthodox religious buildings were destroyed in the war, such as the 13th-century Sase Monastery, Vozuća Monastery, and others. **Parts of the old city of Mostar, including the Stari Most, were destroyed by the Croatian Defence Council during the war. The Stari Most has been rebuilt. Another symbol of the city, the monumental Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Mostar, Cathedral of the Holy Trinity was shelled, set afire, and finally blown up by the local Croat forces. The reconstruction of the church is ongoing.


Croatia

*In the Independent State of Croatia 450 Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed along with monumental iconostasis, thousands of icons and number of manuscripts and books which included archival books about births, weddings and deaths. The destroyed ritual items were of great cultural and historical importance and beauty. *War damage of the Croatian War (1991–1995) has been assessed on 2,271 protected cultural monuments, with the damage cost being estimated at 407 million Deutsche Mark, DM.Destruction and Conservation of Cultural Property
ed. Robert Layton, Peter G. Stone & Julian Thomas, One World Archeology, Routledge 2001, London, pg. 162.
The largest numbers – 683 damaged cultural monuments – are located in the area of Dubrovnik and Neretva County. Most are situated in Dubrovnik itself. The entire buildings and possessions of 481 Roman Catholic churches, several synagogues, and several Serbian Orthodox churches were badly damaged or destroyed. Valuable inventories were looted from over 100 churches. The most drastic example of destruction of cultural monuments, art objects, and artifacts took place in Vukovar. After the occupation of the devastated city by the Yugoslav Army and Serbian paramilitary forces, portable cultural property was removed from shelters and museums in Vukovar to museums and archives in Serbia. **Church of St. Nicholas, Karlovac, destroyed between 1991 and 1993. Renovated in 2007. **Medieval Dragović monastery, Vrlika, destroyed in 1995. Reestablished in 2004. * After Croatia gained independence, about 3,000 memorials dedicated to the Anti-fascism, anti-fascist resistance and the victims of fascism were destroyed. * In September 1991, Croatian National Guard, Croatian forces entered the memorial site of the Jasenovac Concentration Camp and vandalized the museum building, while exhibitions and documentation were destroyed, damaged and looted.


Czech Republic

* The Old Town Hall (Prague), Old Town Hall in Prague was severely damaged by fire during the Prague uprising of 1945. The chamber where George of Poděbrady was elected King of Bohemia was devastated; the town hall's bell, the oldest in Bohemia, dating from 1313, was melted; and the city archives, comprising 70,000 volumes (most of which were transported to the outskirts of Prague due to the fear of the bombardment), as well as historically priceless manuscripts, were destroyed.


Denmark

*Copenhagen Fire of 1728, where a great part of medieval Copenhagen vanished. *Christiansborg Palace (1st), Christiansborg Palace, main residence of the List of Danish monarchs, Danish Kings, destroyed by fire in 1794. *Copenhagen Fire of 1795, where a great part of medieval and renaissance Copenhagen vanished. *Hirschholm Palace, summer residence of the Danish Kings, demolished in 1809–1813 after it stood empty after its role in the affair between Johann Friedrich Struensee and Queen Caroline Matilda of Great Britain in the 1770s.


Estonia

*During World War II, 98% of the town of Narva was destroyed due to March bombing, Soviet bombing raids. Only 3 buildings, including the Narva Town Hall, town hall, are still remaining.


France

*During the Siege of Strasbourg that took place at the height of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the total destruction by Shell (projectile), shelling and fire of the municipal library and the municipal art and archaeology collections resulted in the loss of 400,000 books, 3,446 Medieval manuscripts, and thousands of incunables, as well as of hundreds of paintings, stained glass windows, and archaeological artefacts. The most famous lost object was the original manuscript of the Hortus deliciarum. *On 23 May 1871, the Tuileries Palace, which had been the usual Parisian residence of French monarchs, was almost entirely gutted in a fire set by members of the Paris Commune, leaving only the stone shell. It was subsequently demolished in 1883. *In 1914, Reims Cathedral was burned as a result of shelling during the initial phase of the First World War. The cathedral was rebuilt after the war. *The 1978 Palace of Versailles bombing severely damaged parts of the Palace of Versailles, including several priceless pieces of art. The palace was rebuilt and reopened to the public within four years. *On 15 April 2019, the roof of the Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris fire, caught fire, severely damaging the bell towers and resulting in the total collapse of the central spire and roof. The fire is believed to have been caused by the ongoing Building restoration, restoration, though an investigation is ongoing.


Germany

*Many historically and architecturally significant buildings were destroyed or severely damaged during World War II and the post-war period as a result of the Allied policy of area bombing of cities aimed at destroying or weakening infrastructure and war-related industry in the German Reich, as well as demoralizing the population by destroying urban cores and residential neighborhoods. Several hundred cities were destroyed, many of them by more than 80 percent. Striking examples are palaces like Berlin Palace, Monbijou Palace, and City Palace, Potsdam, as well as churches like Dresden Frauenkirche, Berlin Cathedral, and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. Several have been rebuilt since 1990 (including all those mentioned except Monbijou Palace and Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church). *The Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Paulinerkirche was a medieval church from 1231 in Leipzig. The church survived the war practically unscathed but was dynamited in 1968 during the communist regime of East Germany. After the reunification of Germany, a new building in a contemporary style, the Paulinum, was built on the site. *The building housing the Historical Archive of the City of Cologne collapsed on 3 March 2009 during an underground railway line construction. *The Church of St. Lambertus, Immerath, Church of St. Lambertus in Immerath (Erkelenz), Immerath was demolished on 9 January 2018 as part of the demolition of the entire village to make way for an expansion of the Garzweiler surface mine. The church had been added to the list of heritage monuments in Erkelenz on 14 May 1985. *In October 2020, artworks displayed at various museums at Museumsinsel in Berlin were vandalized with a liquid that left stains on the artifacts.


Greece

*The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Ancient World The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, also known as the Seven Wonders of the World or simply the Seven Wonders, is a list of seven notable structures present during classical antiquity. The first known list of seven wonders dates back to the 2 ...
, was destroyed in the 226 BC Rhodes earthquake, and its remains were destroyed in the 7th century AD while Rhodes was under Arab rule. In December 2015, a group of European architects announced plans to build a modern Colossus where the original once stood. *The Statue of Zeus at Olympia, also a Wonder of the Ancient World, was destroyed around the 5th century CE, although it is not known exactly when or how. *The Parthenon was extensively damaged in 1687 during the Great Turkish War (1683–1699). The Ottoman army fortified the Acropolis of Athens and used the Parthenon as a gunpowder magazine and a shelter for members of the local Turkish community. On 26 September, a Venetian mortar round blew up the magazine, and the explosion blew out the building's central portion. About three hundred people were killed in the explosion, which caused fires that burned until the following day and consumed many homes. The Parthenon was extensively and permanently damaged when Thomas Bruce, the 7th Earl of Elgin and ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (occupiers of Greece in the early 19th century), who admired the Parthenon's extensive collection of ancient marble sculptures, began extracting and expatriating them to Britain in 1801. More damage to the site's heritage came after independence, when all Medieval and Ottoman features of the Acropolis (most notably the Frankish Tower (Acropolis of Athens), Frankish Tower) were destroyed by Heinrich Schliemann in a project to rid the site of all post-Classical Greece, Classical influence.


Hungary

(Destroyed buildings of Budapest and Destroyed buildings of Hungary, both in Hungarian) *Numerous historical buildings in Budapest were damaged or destroyed during World War II, including the Hungarian Parliament Building, the Chain Bridge (Budapest), Chain Bridge, and the Sándor Palace, Budapest, Sándor Palace. These three have now been rebuilt.


Ireland

*During the Battle of Dublin at the beginning of the Irish Civil War in 1922, munitions were stored at the Four Courts building, which housed 1,000 years of Irish records in the Public Record Office. Under circumstances that are disputed, the munitions exploded, destroying much of Ireland's historical record. *The Irish Republican Army followed a policy of deliberate destruction of Irish country houses (1919–1923).


Italy

*Many historic gardens and villas were destroyed in Rome in the 19th century, including Villa Ludovisi, Villa Negroni and Villa Astalli; *Tower of Paul III and Convent of Aracoeli, demolished to make room for the Victor Emmanuel Monument. *Various historic buildings were demolished in the 19th and 20th centuries to make way for railways, industrial areas, or other modern buildings. Examples include the Castello di Villagonia and the Real Cittadella in Sicily. *Many historic buildings in Italy were destroyed or damaged during World War II. These include the monastery of Monte Cassino, which was destroyed during the Battle of Monte Cassino but was rebuilt after the war. *Several historic buildings, books, paintings, and sculptures were destroyed during the 1966 flood of the Arno, Florence Flood of 1966. Also, Venice was affected during the 1966 Venice flood, flood of 1966. *Several churches and other heritage sites were damaged or destroyed during earthquakes such as the 1997 Umbria and Marche earthquake, the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake, and the August 2016 Central Italy earthquake.


Kosovo

During the Yugoslavia period there was destruction of Albanian heritage endorsed by the state. A number of Albanian cultural sites in Kosovo were destroyed during the Kosovo conflict (1998–1999) which constituted a war crime violating the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, Hague and Geneva Conventions. In all 225 out of 600 mosques in Kosovo were damaged, vandalised, or destroyed alongside other Islamic architecture and Islamic libraries and archives with records spanning 500 years.. Additionally 500 Albanian owned ''Tower houses in the Balkans, kulla'' dwellings (traditional stone tower houses) and three out of four well preserved Ottoman period urban centres located in Kosovo cities were badly damaged resulting in great loss of traditional architecture. Kosovo's public libraries, in particular 65 out of 183 were completely destroyed with a loss of 900,588 volumes. During the war, Islamic architectural heritage posed for Yugoslav Serb paramilitary and military forces as Albanian patrimony with destruction of non-Serbian architectural heritage being a methodical and planned component of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. During World War II, a number of Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox religious sites were damaged or destroyed. During the 1968 and 1981 protests in Kosovo, 1981 protests, Serbian Orthodox religious sites were the target of vandalism, that continued during the 1980s. Kosovo War, NATO bombing in March–June 1999 resulted in some accidental damages to churches and a mosque. Revenge attacks against Serbian religious sites commenced following the conflict and the return of hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanian refugees to their homes. Serbian cultural sites in Kosovo were systematically destroyed in the aftermath of the Kosovo War and 2004 unrest in Kosovo, 2004 ethnic violence. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice this includes 155 destroyed Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries as well as Medieval Monuments in Kosovo, which were inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger.


Malta

*Parts of the megalithic Xagħra Stone Circle in Gozo were deliberately destroyed in around 1834–1835 and its megaliths were broken down to form masonry which was used in the construction of a nearby farmhouse. The site was subsequently forgotten for over a century before being rediscovered in the late 20th century. *A number of buildings of historical or architectural importance which had been included on the Antiquities List were destroyed by aerial bombardment during World War II, including Auberge d'Auvergne, Auberge de France and the Slaves' Prison in Valletta, the Birgu Clock Tower, Clock Tower, Auberge d'Allemagne, Birgu, Auberge d'Allemagne and Auberge d'Italie, Birgu, Auberge d'Italie in Birgu, and two out of three Kordin Temples, megalithic temples at Kordin. Others such as Fort Manoel also suffered severe damage, but were rebuilt after the war. *Other buildings which were not included on the Antiquities List but which had significant cultural importance were also destroyed during the war. The most notable of these was the Royal Opera House, Valletta, Royal Opera House in Valletta, which is considered as "one of the major architectural and cultural projects undertaken by the British" by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage. *The Gourgion Tower in Xewkija, which was included on the Antiquities List, was demolished by American forces in 1943 to make way for an airfield. Many of its inscriptions and decorated stones were retrieved and they are now in storage at Heritage Malta. *Palazzo Fremaux, a building included on the Antiquities List and which was scheduled as a Grade 2 property, was gradually demolished between 1990 and 2003. The demolition was condemned by local residents, the local government and non-governmental organizations. *The Azure Window, a limestone natural arch on the island of Gozo in Malta. It was located in Dwejra Bay in the limits of San Lawrenz, close to the Inland Sea and the Fungus Rock. It was one of Malta's major tourist attractions. The arch, together with other natural features in the area of Dwejra, is featured in a number of international films and other media representations. The formation was anchored on the east end by the seaside cliff, arching over open water, to be anchored to a free standing pillar in the sea to the west of the cliff. It was created when two limestone sea caves collapsed. Following years of natural erosion causing parts of the arch to fall into the sea, the arch and free standing pillar collapsed completely during a storm in March 2017. *Villa St Ignatius, a 19th-century villa with historical and architectural significance, was partially demolished in late 2017. This was condemned by numerous non-governmental organizations and other entities.


Netherlands

*The German bombing of Rotterdam that took place on 14 May 1940, also known as the Rotterdam Blitz, decimated most of the historical city center of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, which at the time was the second-largest city in the country. During the bombing, hundreds of years worth of architecture and artwork were destroyed within hours. * De Noord (Rotterdam), De Noord, a tower mill which had survived the Rotterdam Blitz, suffered a fire in July 1954 and was demolished soon after. * Kareol, a huge Art Deco building in Aerdenhout. It was built in 1908-1911. It was the largest house being built by a private owner in The Netherlands in the 20th century. It was demolished in 1979. * Kolleg St. Ludwig, a friary in Vlodrop. It was demolished in 2015.


Norway

*From 1992 to 1995, members of the Early Norwegian black metal scene, Norwegian black metal scene began a wave of arson attacks on medieval Christian churches. By 1996, there had been at least 50 attacks.


Poland

*Warsaw Old Town, including the Royal Castle, Warsaw, Warsaw New Town, Łazienki Park including the Łazienki Palace, and Ujazdowski Castle, was Planned destruction of Warsaw, destroyed by Nazi Germany in 1944, and later rebuilt from the 1950s to 1980s.


Portugal

*Lisbon was almost destroyed during the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and subsequent fire and tsunami. *A small section of the 19th-century quarter ''Chiado'' was destroyed by fire on 25 August 1988. The eighteen damaged buildings were rebuilt in the following 20 years.


Romania

*The 60-meter-high tower of List of fortified churches in Transylvania, Rotbav fortified church, dating back to the 13th century, collapsed on 20 February 2016. *Many historical buildings were demolished to construct the Centrul Civic in Bucharest. *Many old towns of different cities were destroyed partially or completely because of Urban planning in communist countries, communist urban planning. Old towns of cities like Bacău, Bârlad, Câmpina, Galați, Orșova, Pitești, Ploiești, Râmnicu Vâlcea, and Suceava were completely demolished. *The 1989 fire of the Central University Library, Bucharest, Central University Library in Bucharest destroyed over 500,000 books and 3,700 manuscripts, including manuscripts of famous Romanian writings, such as many of Mircea Eliade's novel manuscripts.


Russia

* Russian cultural heritage register#Post-Soviet Russia (1991–present), In Moscow alone losses of 1917–2006 are estimated at over 640 notable buildings (including 150 to 200 listed buildings, out of a total inventory of 3,500) – some disappeared completely, others were replaced with concrete replicas. * President of Russia, President Boris Yeltsin ordered the shelling of the White House (Moscow), White House, seat of the Russian government, during his 1993 Russian constitutional crisis#Storming of the White House, 1993 consolidation of power, causing a large fire and considerable damage to the top floors. * 'Mephistopheles', figure on a St Petersburg building on Lakhtinksaya Street known as the House with Mephistopheles, smashed by a fundamentalist Orthodox group in 2015. * The original buildings of Metrowagonmash plant, founded by Savva Mamontov in 1897 and built in Russian Gothic style, were demolished between 2016 and 2019 to make way for block houses.


Serbia

*A number of culturally and historically important buildings were destroyed in Belgrade during Operation Retribution (1941), Operation Retribution, the Allied bombing of Yugoslavia in World War II, and various other battles. Destroyed buildings include the National Library of Serbia and the library's collection of 500,000 volumes and invaluable collection of medieval Cyrillic manuscripts and charters, King Alexander Bridge, Old Post Office (Belgrade), Old Post Office, Belgrade Synagogue#Jews in Belgrade, Sephard synagogue, and a number of other buildings. *The Yugoslav Ministry of Defence building, a cultural monument, was partially destroyed during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. NATO bombing also resulted in the damaging of medieval monuments, such as Gračanica Monastery, the Patriarchate of Peć (monastery), Patriarchate of Peć and the Visoki Dečani, which are on the
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...
's World Heritage Site, World Heritage list today. Furthemore, 19 hospitals and 20 health centers were damaged, including the University Hospital Center Dr Dragiša Mišović, which was founded in 1922. The Avala Tower, one of the most iconic symbols of the Serbian capital, was destroyed during the bombing.


Slovenia

* Yugoslav Partisans, Partisan forces or their successors destroyed approximately 100 castles and manors during and after the Second World War. Examples include Ajman Castle, Ajman Manor, Drtija, Belnek Castle, Boštanj, Grosuplje#Castle, Boštanj Castle, Brdo pri Lukovici, Brdo Castle, Čušperk, Čušperk Castle, Dol pri Ljubljani, Dol Mansion, Dolena, Dolena Castle, Gracar Turn, Gracar Castle, Planina, Postojna, Haasberg Castle, Grič pri Klevevžu, Klevevž Castle, Kolovec, Kolovec Castle, Križ, Komenda, Križ Castle, Stranska Vas pri Semiču, Krupa Castle, Mokronog, Mokronog Castle, Pogonik, Pogonik Castle, Dolenje Radulje, Radelstein Castle, Soteska, Dolenjske Toplice, Soteska Castle, Špitalič, Kamnik, Špitalič Manor, Višnja Gora, Turn Castle, and Volčji Potok, Volčji Potok Manor. * An Allied raid heavily damaged Žužemberk, Žužemberk Castle during the Second World War. * Partisan forces or their successors destroyed many churches during and after the Second World War. Examples include the churches in Ajbelj, Gabrje, Dobrova–Polhov Gradec, Gabrje, Hinje, Žužemberk, Hinje, Koče, Kočevje, Koče, Kočevska Reka, Morava, Kočevje, Morava, Plešivica, Žužemberk, Plešivica, Srobotnik pri Velikih Laščah, Stari Log, Kočevje, Stari Log, Trava, Loški Potok, Trava, Velika Račna, Zafara, Žužemberk, Zafara, and Žužemberk. * A German raid during the Second World War destroyed the church in Dragatuš. * Allied raids destroyed churches during the Second World War. Examples include the church in Dvor, Žužemberk, Dvor and Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Ptuj.


Soviet Union

* During February–March 1944, the Soviet conducted the Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, expulsion of the Chechens and Ingush from the North Caucasus as a part of the Forced settlements in the Soviet Union, Soviet forced settlement program of the non-Russian ethnic minorities. The operation resulted in the deportation of 496,000 Chechen people, Chechens and Ingush people, Ingush populations, and the death of around a quarter of them. It was also accompanied by the destruction of local cultural and societal heritages; names of these nations were erased from the books and records; placenames were replaced with Russian ones; mosques were demolished; villages were razed; and the historical Nakh language manuscripts were almost destroyed. * The native Crimean Tatars were Deportation of the Crimean Tatars, deported by the Soviets from the peninsula in May 1944. Afterward, the government engaged in a full-scale Detatarization of Crimea, detatarization campaign to continue the ethnic cleansing campaign, all the Tatar placenames being replaced with Russian ones, and the Muslim graveyards and religious objects were destroyed or converted into secular places. * Russian cultural heritage register#Denial of heritage (1917–1941), With the change in values imposed by communist ideology, the tradition of preservation was broken. Independent preservation societies, even those that defended only secular landmarks such as Moscow-based OIRU were disbanded by the end of the 1920s. A new anti-religious campaign, launched in 1929, coincided with collectivization of peasants; destruction of churches in the cities peaked around 1932. Several churches were demolished, including the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and St. Michael's Cathedral (Izhevsk), St. Michael's Cathedral in Izhevsk. Both of these were rebuilt in the 1990s and 2000s. * Russian cultural heritage register#Khrushchev's offensive (1959–1964), In 1959 Nikita Khrushchev launched his anti-religious campaign. By 1964 over 10 thousand churches out of 20 thousand were shut down (mostly in rural areas) and many were demolished. Of 58 monasteries and convents operating in 1959, only sixteen remained by 1964; of Moscow's fifty churches operating in 1959, thirty were closed and six demolished.


Spain

* Because of the Spanish confiscation, Ecclesiastical confiscations of Mendizábal, secularization of church properties in 1835–1836, several hundreds of church buildings, monasteries, etc., or civil buildings owned by the Church were partly or demolished. Many of the art works, libraries and archives contained were lost or pillaged in the time the buildings were abandoned and without owners. Among them were important buildings as Santa Caterina convent (the first gothic building in Iberian Peninsula) and Sant Francesc convent (gothic too, one of the richest in the country), both in Barcelona, or San Pedro de Arlanza Roman monastery, near Burgos, now ruined. * Several monuments demolished in Calatayud: the church of Convent of Dominicos of San Pedro Mártir (1856), Convent of Trinidad (1856), Church of Santiago (1863), Church of San Torcuato and Santa Lucía (1869) and Church of San Miguel (1871). * The leaning Leaning Tower of Zaragoza, Torre Nueva in Zaragoza was demolished in 1892 amidst fears that it would topple. *Palacio de los Lasso de Castilla, was 15th century palace in Madrid which became the palace or residence of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Catholic Monarchs. It was demolished during the mid 19th century. * Churches, monasteries, Convents burning in Spain (1936), convents and libraries were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War. * A Virxe da Barca sanctuary, located in Muxia, was destroyed by lightning.


Sweden

* Tre Kronor (castle), Tre Kronor, main residence of the List of Swedish monarchs, Swedish Kings, destroyed by fire in 1697. Several important documents of the history of Sweden were lost in the fire. * Klara (Stockholm), Klarakvarteren, a part of Stockholm from the 17th century. It was demolished in the 1960–70. * The city of Norrköping was razed in 1719 by Russians. It was reconstructed with grid pattern streets and using the surviving Johannesborg fort as a quarry.


Switzerland

* The city of Basel was devastated by the 1356 Basel earthquake. * Pfäfers Abbey was destroyed in 1665 by fire. * The city of Sion, Switzerland, Sion with Majoria and Tourbillon castles was destroyed by fire in 1788. * Disentis Abbey was destroyed by fire in 1799 with its library and archives. * The Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge) in Luzern (Lucerne) was substantially destroyed in 1993 by fire.


Ukraine

*Antonov An-225 Mriya, Kyiv: Severely damaged in 2022 during the Battle of Antonov Airport, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The aircraft's owner, defense contractor Ukroboronprom, has announced that following the invasion, they will attempt to rebuild the aircraft. *Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Kyiv: Damaged on 1 March 2022 during the Battle of Kyiv (2022), Battle of Kyiv, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The memorial complex, which was under construction at the time, suffered structural damage to a museum building, as well as damage to the adjacent cemetery; other intrinsic elements of the site, including the memorial's synagogue and menorah sculpture, were not damaged. *Brotherhood Monastery, Kyiv: Demolished by Soviet authorities in 1935. *Church of the Tithes, Kyiv: The original 10th century church was destroyed by Mongol Empire, Mongol forces in the Siege of Kiev (1240). A new church was built on the site in the 19th century, but it too was destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1935. *Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv, Dormition Cathedral, Kharkiv: Damaged in 2022 during the Battle of Kharkiv (2022), Battle of Kharkiv, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Artwork and stained glass in the cathedral were damaged. *Great Suburb Synagogue, Lviv: Demolished by invading Nazi forces in 1941. *Golden Rose Synagogue (Lviv), Golden Rose Synagogue, Lviv: Oldest synagogue in Ukraine, sacked in 1941 and demolished in 1942 by the Nazi occupation forces. *Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, Ivankiv: Destroyed on 27 February 2022 during the Battle of Ivankiv, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The museum contained folk artwork, including paintings by Maria Prymachenko and textile works of Hanna Veres. The number of artworks by Prymachenko, Veres, and other artists which were destroyed or damaged is currently unknown. *Khreshchatyk, Kyiv: The main street of Kyiv, containing many historic buildings. It was heavily mined by retreating Soviet forces in 1941, and as a result most buildings were destroyed. Some buildings were restored after the war, but most were replaced with new structures in the style of Stalinist architecture. *Kuindzhi Art Museum, Mariupol: Destroyed on 21 March 2022 during the Siege of Mariupol, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. The museum was dedicated to the life and work of Ukrainian-born artist Arkhip Kuindzhi. Although the works by Kuindzhi held by the museum were reportedly removed from the building prior to its destruction, the whereabouts of the artwork are unknown. Additionally, the status of the remainder of the museum's collection, which included around 2,000 works by fellow Ukrainian artists Ivan Aivazovsky, Mykola Hlushchenko, Tetyana Yablonska, Mykhailo Derehus, and others, remains unknown. *St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv: Demolished by Soviet authorities from 1934-1936. Some frescoes and mosaics were removed and taken to museums in the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian FSR before demolition, only a portion of which were returned when the Cathedral was rebuilt in the 1990s. *St. Nicholas Military Cathedral, Kyiv: Demolished by Soviet authorities in 1934. *Slovo Building, Kharkiv: Damaged in 2022 during the Battle of Kharkiv, part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.


United Kingdom

*The Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s led to many monasteries, relics, and books being destroyed, such as Glastonbury Abbey. *The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed much of the old city, including Old St Paul's Cathedral, 87 parish churches, 44 Company Halls, the Royal Exchange, London, Royal Exchange, the Custom House, City of London, Custom House, and the Bridewell Palace. *The Palace of Whitehall, the main residence of the English and later List of British monarchs, British monarchs, was destroyed by fire in 1698. *Arthur's O'on, a Roman temple or triumphal monument located near the Antonine Wall in Scotland, was demolished by a local landowner in 1743. *St Mary's Church, Reculver, St Mary's Church in Reculver, an exemplar of Anglo-Saxon architecture and sculpture, was partially demolished in 1809. *The Palace of Westminster was almost destroyed by Burning of Parliament, fire on 16 October 1834, and many documents about Britain's political history were lost. Only Westminster Hall and the Jewel Tower survived. * The Temple of the Sun, a Gothic folly in Kew Gardens designed by William Chambers (architect), William Chambers in 1761, was destroyed when a nearby cedar tree fell on it in a storm in 1916. Strangely, Chambers had also planted the cedar earlier, in 1725. *The Crystal Palace in London was destroyed by fire on 30 November 1936. *Coventry Cathedral, St Michael's Church in Coventry was a 14th-century cathedral that was nearly destroyed by the German Luftwaffe during the Coventry Blitz of 14 November 1940. Only the tower, spire, the outer wall, and the bronze effigy and tomb of its first bishop, Huyshe Yeatman-Biggs, survived. The ruins of this cathedral remain Consecration, hallowed ground and are listed building, listed at Grade I. *Charles Church, Plymouth, Charles Church in Plymouth was entirely burned out by incendiary bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe on the nights of 21 and 22 March 1941. However, it has since been encircled by a roundabout and turned into "a memorial to those citizens of Plymouth who were killed in air-raids on the city in the 1939–45 war." *Coleshill House, a historic mansion in Oxfordshire (historically Berkshire) was destroyed in a fire in 1952, and many historic items within were lost. The ruins were demolished in 1958. *Several historic structures, such as the Euston Arch in London and the Royal Arch (structure), Royal Arch in Dundee, were demolished in the 1960s to make way for redeveloped infrastructure. * The Imperial Hotel, London, designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll and built from 1905 to 1911, was demolished in 1966–67. *York Minster was severely damaged by fire in 1984, believed to have been caused by a lightning strike on the south transept. *The Baltic Exchange at Baltic Exchange (building), 24-28 St Mary Axe in the City of London, was destroyed by a bomb placed there by the Provisional IRA in 1992. The site is now occupied by The Gherkin and the Baltic Exchange Memorial Glass can be seen in the National Maritime Museum. *A 1992 Windsor Castle fire, major fire in 1992 caused extensive damage to Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and one of the official residences of King Charles III. *The Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Stadium was closed in October 2000 for redevelopment, and demolition commenced in December 2002, completing in 2003. The top of one of the twin towers was erected as a memorial in the park on the north side of Overton Close in the Saint Raphael's Estate. *The Carlton Tavern, Kilburn, Carlton Tavern, an historic pub in Kilburn, London and the only building on its street to survive the Blitz during World War II, was demolished by its owner and without prior permission in April 2015. The pub was subsequently rebuilt and re-opened following a community campaign and planning appeals. *Clandon Park House, a historic mansion in Surrey, was severely damaged by fire on 29 April 2015, leaving the house "essentially a shell" and destroying thousands of historic items, including one of the footballs kicked across no-man's land on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. *The Royal Clarence Hotel in Exeter, considered England's oldest hotel, was almost destroyed by fire on 28 October 2016. *The Mackintosh Building of the Glasgow School of Art was extensively damaged by fire in May 2014 including the destruction of the artistically significant Mackintosh library but as restoration was completed and nearing reopening a far more devastating fire broke out on the night of 15 June 2018, destroying the building's interior. Alan Dunlop, the school's professor of architecture, said: "I can't see any restoration possible for the building itself. It looks destroyed." *The Beehive Mills, in Bolton, Lancashire, a Grade II Listed buildings in Bolton, Bolton listed building built in 1895, was demolished by agreement of the local authority in 2019 for the building of 121 houses.


North America


Belize

* Several Maya civilization, Maya sites such as San Estevan (Maya site), San Estevan and Nohmul have been partly demolished.


Canada

* The 1620 Province of Avalon, Colony of Avalon was destroyed in 1696 in the Avalon Peninsula Campaign, Siege of Ferryland during King William's War. * In 1696, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (St. John's), Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland, was destroyed by the French under the command of Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville. The present cathedral was extensively damaged in The Great Fire of 1892. * The 1754 St. Matthew's United Church (Halifax) was destroyed by fire in 1857 and rebuilt. * In January 1839, St. James Anglican Church in Toronto was destroyed by a fire and rebuilt as St. James Cathedral by December 1839. This building was destroyed by another Great Fire of Toronto (1849), fire in 1849 and replaced by the current structure, the Cathedral Church of St. James (Toronto), Cathedral Church of St. James, in 1853. * Brock's Monument was heavily damaged after a bombing on 17 April 1840 and subsequently demolished; the monument was rebuilt in 1859. * On the night of 25 April 1849, the Canadian Parliament buildings in Montreal were Burning of the Parliament Buildings in Montreal, set ablaze by United Empire Loyalist, Loyalist rioters. The resulting fire consumed the Parliament's two libraries, parts of the archives of Upper Canada and Lower Canada, as well as more recent public documents. Over 23,000 volumes, forming the collections of the two parliamentary libraries, were lost. * Christ Church Cathedral (Montreal) was rebuilt in 1859, replacing the previous structure destroyed in a fire in 1856. * The 1665 Fort William, Newfoundland, Fort William in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Newfoundland, was demolished in 1881 to make room for the Newfoundland Railway. * The 1881 St. James Anglican Church (Vancouver) was destroyed by a fire in 1886 and only rebuilt after 1935 (completed in 1937). * Knox Presbyterian Church (Toronto) was severely damaged by fire in 1895 and eventually relocated in 1909. * Crystal Palace (Montreal) was destroyed by fire in 1896. * Centre Block#Great fire, Centre Block of Parliament Hill in Ottawa was destroyed by fire on 3 February 1916, and immediately rebuilt. * The Church of Nativité-de-la-Sainte-Vierge-d'Hochelaga was rebuilt in 1921 after fire destroyed the original 1877 church. * Montreal City Hall from 1872–1878 was gutted by fire in 1922 and rebuilt by 1932. * Church of the Ascension (Windsor, Ontario) was destroyed by fire in 1926 (rebuilt in 1927) and again in 1990 (repaired the same year). * Metropolitan United Church was destroyed by fire in 1928 and rebuilt in 1929 to match the original 1874 building. * Saint Boniface Cathedral in Winnipeg, built in 1830, was destroyed by fire in 1860, rebuilt in 1862, relocated in 1906, and destroyed by fire again in 1968. The current cathedral was rebuilt in 1972. * Saint-Jacques Cathedral (Montreal) was destroyed by three fires in 1852, 1858, and 1933. The last rebuilt church was mostly demolished after 1973 with only the entrance preserved as Pavillon Judith-Jasmin for the Université du Québec à Montréal. * The Government House (Battleford), Old Government House, Built in 1876. From 1876-1883 Battleford was the seat of government and known as the Territorial Capital of the Northwest Territories. Battleford and the N.W.M.P. played a significant role during the 1885 North West  Rebellion. Burned down by arson in 2003 * St. Jude's Cathedral (Iqaluit) was destroyed by arson in 2005, along with Inuit art and artifacts. * The Quebec City Armoury, built 1885–1888, was mostly destroyed by a fire in 2008 and rebuilt by 2016.


Guatemala

*The Maya codices were destroyed by Spanish priest Diego de Landa. *Iglesia del Carmen, a colonial church in Antigua, Guatemala, Antigua, Guatemala, was damaged by several earthquakes. *The convent of Santa Clara in Antigua Guatemala was severely damaged during the earthquakes, today only its ruins survive. * Tikal Temple 33 was destroyed in the 1960s by archaeologists to uncover earlier phases of construction of the pyramid.


Haiti

* Much of Haiti's heritage was damaged or destroyed in the 2010 Haiti earthquake, devastating earthquake in 2010, including the National Palace (Haiti), National Palace and the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption, Port-au-Prince, Port-au-Prince Cathedral.


Honduras

*The church of ''La Iglesia de Nuestro Señor de los Reyes'' was a Catholic church in the city of Comayagua built in 1555. It was damaged by an earthquake in 1808; finally the mayor's office ordered it demolished in 1829. *The church of the ''La limpia de la Inmaculada Concepcion'' was a Catholic church built in 1621 in Tegucigalpa. It suffered a fire in 1746, and stopped being used frequently. It was finally demolished in 1858 due to its poor condition. *The ''Caxa Real (Honduras), Caxa Real'' of Comaygua was heavily damaged due to earthquakes; it was rebuilt and re opened in 2013. *Tenampua, a ceremonial center of the Lenca culture from the classic Mesoamerican period, was heavily damaged during the Second Honduran civil war, Second Honduran Civil War in 1924. *Castillo Bogran, an abandoned 19th-century historical building in Santa Bárbara, Honduras, Santa Barbara that belonged to President Marco Bogran. The building has deteriorated extensively due to heavy rains, hurricanes, and wind. Only 30% of the structure survives today. *In April 2009 a fire occurred at the museum of the Saint Agustín College (Honduras), Saint Agustin College of Comayagua, destroying several pieces of art dating from the Spanish colonial era, including paintings made in Spain and relics that belonged to national heroes. *On 30 November 2017 a fire damaged the ''Museum del hombre'' In Teguciglapa, strongly damaging the structure of the building. Several pieces were saved but suffered extensive damage. *On 12 March 2019 there was a fire in the Museum of the Palace of Telecommunications in Tegucigalpa; 30% of the collection was destroyed and another part damaged.


United States

*Pennsylvania Station (1910–1963), Pennsylvania Station was a Beaux-Arts style "architectural jewel" of New York City. Controversially, the above-ground portions of the station were demolished in 1963, making way for constructing the Madison Square Garden arena that opened in 1968. The controversy energized a historic preservation movement in New York City and the United States. *On 11 September 2001, Islamist terrorists affiliated with al-Qaeda destroyed both towers of the World Trade Center (1973–2001), World Trade Center complex in New York City during the September 11 attacks, 11 September attacks. *The 2008 Universal Studios fire destroyed 40,000 to 50,000 films and video recordings and over 100,000 master audio recordings. *Since the start of the 1960s, the National Historic Landmark (NHL) program and the 1966 start of the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), numerous landmarks designated in those programs have been destroyed. In some cases, the destruction was mitigated by documentation of the artifact or reproduction. **Losses by flood and wind damage include: ***The Old Blenheim Bridge, built-in 1855 and the longest-surviving covered bridge in the United States, was destroyed by Hurricane Irene-related flooding in 2011. ***Numerous NRHP-listed coastal properties in Mississippi and Louisiana were destroyed or significantly damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. **Losses by fire, arson, or otherwise include: ***The Russian-built Fort Ross, California, Fort Ross Chapel, pre-1841, was destroyed in 1970 and subsequently reproduced. *** The National Personnel Records Center fire of 1973 destroyed about 80% of the military personnel records held at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. ***The Provo Tabernacle (NRHP) was destroyed in a fire on 17 December 2010. It was subsequently rebuilt as the Provo City Center Temple, dedicated in 2016. ***On 30 May 2020, multiple historical documents and artifacts were either damaged or destroyed when the Memorial to the Women of the Confederacy was attacked by rioters in Richmond, Virginia. **Losses by permitted processes include: ***The Edwin H. Armstrong House in Yonkers, New York, was demolished in 1983. ***Soldier Field stadium in Chicago, Illinois, built in 1924, was altered during a 2002 renovation. ***The Army Medical Museum and Library in Washington, D.C., built in 1887, was demolished in 1969. ***Leesylvania (plantation) was demolished in 1960 to make way for a road. ***NASA wind tunnels including the Eight-Foot High Speed Tunnel (1936–2011) and Full Scale 30-by 60-Foot Tunnel (1936–2010). **Ships broken up include: ***Wapama (steam schooner), ''Wapama'' (steam schooner) (1915–2013), scrapped, though documented by Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) throughout its dismantling. ***President (1924 steamboat), ''President'' (steamboat) (1924–2009), disassembled. *Other losses of covered bridges, landmarked or not, include: **Dooley Station Covered Bridge (1917–1960), arson; replaced by move of 1856-built Portland Mills Covered Bridge. **Bridgeton Covered Bridge (1868–2005), arson, replaced by a replica. **Jeffries Ford Covered Bridge (1915–2002), arson. **Welle Hess Covered Bridge No. S1 (1871–1981), collapsed, partially reproduced off-site. **Whites Bridge (1869–2013), arson. **Babb's Bridge (1864–1973), arson, replaced by a replica. **Honey Run Covered Bridge (1886–2018), destroyed during the 2018 Camp Fire (2018), Camp Fire * In 2014, a 4,500-year-old Coast Miwok Indian burial ground and village was found near Larkspur, California, Larkspur, California, and destroyed to make way for a multimillion-dollar housing development. * Grand Coulee Dam, constructed between 1933 and 1942 on the Columbia River, disturbed burial grounds and destroyed ancient villages on of the Colville Indian Reservation, home to a dozen tribes at the time. *NRHD Jobbers Canyon Historic District, in 1989, all 24 buildings were demolished for development, representing the largest National Register historic district loss to date. *Rich Bar (California), Rich Bar in Plumas County, California, was a ghost town dating back to California Gold Rush, whose history was documented by Louise Clappe in her famed "Shirley Letters". One notable building, the Kellogg House, still contained original furnishings from the 1800s, and was continuously inhabited by Eva Eyraud, the famed "Woman on Indian Hill", from 1888 (when her family purchased the house from the Kelloggs) up until 1977. Plans to refurbish the house were thwarted when it was destroyed in the Dixie Fire on 23 or 24 July 2021. * The Georgia Guidestones were heavily damaged in a bombing on 6 July 2022 and demolished completely later that same day.


South America


Argentina

*Several buildings in Buenos Aires were demolished over years, including , , , , Teatro Odeón, Odeón Theater, Teatro Coliseo, Coliseo Theater and various palaces in Avenida Alvear. *As response to the Bombing of Plaza de Mayo in 1955 several churches in Buenos Aires were burned and looted, including Santo Domingo convent, St. Ignatius Church (Buenos Aires), St. Ignatius Church, , and . *Old buildings in the city of San Juan, Argentina, San Juan were destroyed by an 1944 San Juan earthquake, earthquake in 1944, including the Cathedral and the Government House. *The 1773 over the Reconquista River was renewed in 1964 and declared a List of National Historic Monuments of Argentina, National Historic Monument of Argentina. In 1997, the Company demolished it. *On 18 October 1977, a fire burned the Teatro Argentino de La Plata, Teatro Argentino to the ground in La Plata. The building was later rebuilt, but in a different style.


Brazil

* On 8 July 1978, the Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Museum of Modern Art of Rio de Janeiro was destroyed by fire. * On 17 May 2010, the natural history collection of the Instituto Butantan was destroyed by fire. * On 2 September 2018, the National Museum of Brazil was National Museum of Brazil fire, destroyed by fire.


Uruguay

*In 1969, an original Flag of the Treinta y Tres from the Cisplatine War was stolen from the history museum. The national symbol was taken on 16 July 1969 by a revolutionary group called OPR-33. The historical flag was last seen in 1975 in Buenos Aires but has been considered missing since the day of its theft. This is still a matter of political debate.


Oceania


Australia

*The Garden Palace in Sydney, Australia, Sydney was destroyed by fire on 22 September 1882. *The original Her Majesty's Theatre, Sydney, Her Majesty's Theatre in Sydney was demolished in June 1933 to make way for a Woolworths Limited, Woolworths retail store. *The Jubilee Exhibition Building in Adelaide was demolished in 1962. It hosted the Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition, Adelaide Jubilee International Exhibition of 1887. *The Bellevue Hotel, Brisbane, Bellevue Hotel in Brisbane was demolished on 20 April 1979 by the Bjelke-Petersen Queensland State government amid mass protest. *The Cloudland, Cloudland Dance Hall in Brisbane was demolished in 1982 to make way for an apartment complex. *The Regent Theatre (Sydney), Regent Theatre in Sydney was demolished in 1988. *Tasmanian Aboriginal cave paintings, believed to be 800–8,000 years old, were vandalised in 2016. *Juukan Gorge cave, a site of Australian Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal cultural significance in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Estimated age of human artefacts: 46,000 years. Destroyed by Rio Tinto (corporation), Rio Tinto mining interests, 15 May 2020, despite objections of the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura peoples, whose ancestors' DNA cave paintings and over 7000 artefacts were discovered in the caves. * Burrup Gorge, a site of Australian Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal cultural significance in the Burrup Peninsula, Western Australia, the world's biggest rock art gallery.


New Zealand

* The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, Christchurch, Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Christchurch was demolished in 2021 by order of Bishop Paul Martin following damage in the 2010 and 2011 2011 Christchurch earthquake, Canterbury Earthquakes. The cathedral was listed as a category 1 heritage building. Previous Bishop Barry Jones had approved
plan to restore the building
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but these plans were thrown out following his death in 2016. After extensive destruction of significant heritage buildings in the quakes and the loss of many community hubs within Christchurch the decision to demolish not only the Cathedral but also many other catholic churches (damaged and undamaged) was regarded by many in the city as an act of cultural vandalism. The Christchurch Cathedral was severely damaged in the 2010 and 2011 Christchurch earthquakes. Demolition was planned and partially done before being stopped entirely in 2012 after government concerns in 2017 it was announced the church woad be reinstated.


See also

* Art destruction * Book burning and list of book-burning incidents * List of destroyed libraries * List of World Heritage in Danger * Lost work, lost artworks and list of lost films * Slighting * Virtual heritage * World Monuments Fund


Notes


References


Sources

* Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño, Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio. ''La arquitectura española en sus monumentos desaparecidos''. Madrid, Espasa-Calpe, 1961. * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * Arun Shourie, Shourie, Arun, S.R. Goel, Harsh Narain, J. Dubashi and Ram Swarup. Hindu Temples - What Happened to Them Vol. I, (A Preliminary Survey) (1990)


External links

* (dedicated to the study, research, and documentation of the destruction and damage of historic heritage during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. The website contains judicial documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)). * http://www.cracked.com/article_20149_6-mind-blowing-archeological-discoveries-destroyed-by-idiocy_p2.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Destroyed Heritage, List Of Lists of demolished buildings and structures, * Architecture lists Cultural heritage Cultural lists