What can ruins tell us, and what should we do with them?
videos + essays
Destruction, Memory, and Monuments: The Many Lives of the Parthenon
The Parthenon has echoed through history, but what part of that history do we prize, and which do we ignore?
Views of past and present: the Forum Romanum and archaeological context
Views of Rome have long fired human imagination, eliciting reactions that lead to contemplation and argue for conservation
Rome’s layered history — the Castel Sant’Angelo
A tomb, a prison, the site of a miracle, papal apartments — this building has as many layers as Rome itself.
The Roman Forum: Part 3, Ruins in modern imagination
Ruins function as political and private symbols even in the modern era
Conservation as memorial — Mantegna’s St. James Led to his Execution
Conservation as memorial in the aftermath of U.S. bombing.
The Roman Forum: Part 2, Ruins in modern imagination (The Renaissance and after)
What did Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Masaccio take from ancient ruins of Rome?
The Roman Forum: Part 1, Ruins in modern imagination
How do we find meaning in amidst the ruins of the Roman Forum?
Before the fire: Notre Dame, Paris
The total or partial destruction of churches by fire was a fairly common occurrence in medieval Europe.
