monument

The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument in Taipei, Taiwan

The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece and of Athenian democracy and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments.

De Klaver, Bolsward, a windmill built in the Netherlands in 1802, and Rijksmonument number 9860.

A dusty monument from the Monumental Cemetery of Staglieno in Genoa, c.1910

The Eiffel Tower, in Paris, a monument commemorating the French Revolution.

A monument is a type of structure either explicitly created to commemorate a person or important event or which has become important to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, or simply as an example of historic architecture. In English the word "monumental" is often used in reference to something of extraordinary size and power, as in monumental sculpture, but also to mean simply anything made to commemorate the dead, as a funerary monument or other example of funerary art. The word comes from the Latin "monere," which means 'to remind' or 'to warn.' The term is often used to describe any structure that is a significant and legally protected historic work, and many countries have equivalents of what is called in United Kingdom legislation a Scheduled Monument, which often include relatively recent buildings constructed for residential or industrial purposes, with no thought at the time that they would come to be regarded as "monuments".

Creation and Functions

Monuments have been created for thousands of years, and they are often the most durable and famous symbols of ancient civilizations. Prehistoric tumuli, dolmens, and similar structures have been created in a large number of prehistoric cultures across the world, and the many forms of monumental tombs of the more wealthy and powerful members of a society are often the source of much of our information and art from those cultures.^[1] As societies became organized on a larger scale, so monuments so large as to be difficult to destroy and the Egyptian Pyramids, the Greek Parthenon or the Moai of Easter Island have become symbols of their civilizations. In more recent times, monumental structures such as the Statue of Liberty and Eiffel Tower have become iconic emblems of modern nation-states. The term monumentality relates to the symbolic status and physical presence of a monument.

Monuments are frequently used to improve the appearance of a city or location. Planned cities such as Washington D.C., New Delhi and Brasília are often built around monuments. For example, the Washington Monument's location was conceived by L'Enfant to help organize public space in the city, before it was designed or constructed. Older cities have monuments placed at locations that are already important or are sometimes redesigned to focus on one. As Shelley suggested in his famous poem "Ozymandias" ("Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"), the purpose of monuments is very often to impress or awe.

Structures created for others purposes that have been made notable by their age, size or historic significance may also be regarded as monuments. This can happen because of great age and size, as in the case of the Great Wall of China, or because an event of great import occurred there such as the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in France. Many countries use Ancient monument or similar terms for the official designation of protected structures or archeological sites which may originally have been ordinary domestic houses or other buildings.

Monuments are also often designed to convey historical or political information. They can be used to reinforce the primacy of contemporary political power, such as the column of Trajan or the numerous statues of Lenin in the Soviet Union. They can be used to educate the populace about important events or figures from the past, such as in the renaming of the old General Post Office Building in New York City to the James A. Farley Building (James Farley Post Office), after former Postmaster General James Farley.

The social meanings of monuments are rarely fixed and certain and are frequently 'contested' by different social groups. As an example: whilst the former East German socialist state may have seen the Berlin Wall as a means of 'protection' from the ideological impurity of the west, dissidents and others would often argue that it was symbolic of the inherent repression and paranoia of that state. This contention of meaning is a central theme of modern 'post processual' archaeological discourse.

Until recently, it was customary for archaeologists to study large monuments and pay less attention to the everyday lives of the societies that created them. New ideas about what constitutes the archaeological record have revealed that certain legislative and theoretical approaches to the subject are too focused on earlier definitions of monuments. An example has been the United Kingdom's Scheduled Ancient Monument laws.

Types of monuments

• Buildings designed as iconic landmarks
• Church monuments to commemorate the dead, above or near their grave, often featuring an effigy
• Cenotaphs and memorials to commemorate the dead, usually war casualties - e.g. Vimy Ridge Memorial and India Gate. A cenotaph is a type of monument intended to honor the dead who are buried elsewhere, such as those killed in a war or disaster.
• Columns, often topped with a statue - e.g. Trajan's Column and Nelson's Column in London
• Grave stones constitute small monuments to the deceased
• Mausoleums and tombs to inter the dead - e.g. the Great Pyramid of Giza and Taj Mahal
• Monoliths erected for religious or commemorative purposes
• Mounds erected to commemorate great leaders or events - e.g. Kościuszko Mound
• Mosque monuments are places of worship that usually feature highly skilled calligraphy and geometric artwork.
• Obelisks usually erected to commemorate great leaders - e.g. the Washington Monument, Monas
• Statues of famous individuals or symbols - e.g. Statue of Liberty
• Temples or religious structures built for pilgrimage, ritual or commemorative purposes - e.g. Borobudur, Kaaba
• Terminating vista, layout design for urban monuments
• Triumphal arches, almost always to commemorate military successes - e.g. the Arc de Triomphe
• War memorials

Gallery of large iconic monuments

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  The Statue of Liberty, symbol of the United States of America independence.

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  The Taj Mahal, India, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, as a mausoleum for his wife.

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  Kościuszko Mound, Kraków, Poland commemorates Tadeusz Kościuszko.

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  National Monument, Jakarta, commemorates Indonesian independence

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  The Trajan's Column a symbol of the Ancient Rome victory over Dacia.

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  The Cristo-Rei (Christ the King) in Portugal, a modern religious monument.

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  The Great Mosque of Kairouan an example of islamic Early Middle Ages religious monument.

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  The Great Pyramid of Giza build almost 5000 years ago as a tomb, one of the Seven Wonders.

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  The Obelisk of Byzantine in Sultanahmet Square

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  The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where Saint James is buried.

See also

• Memorial
• National memorial
• National monument (disambiguation)
• National Monuments Record (England) the public archive of English Heritage, holds data on England's monuments
• Monumental sculpture
• Antiquities Act

References

Further reading

• Cynthia Phillips and Shana Priwer, Ancient Monuments, M E Sharpe Reference, 2008
• Françoise Choay, The invention of the historic monument, Cambridge University Press, 2001
• Henri Stierlin, Great monuments of the ancient world, Thames & Hudson, 2005
• Subinoy Gangopadhyay, Testimony of Stone : Monuments of India, Dasgupta & Co., 2002

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Monuments

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Monuments

• Website of Monuments and Sculptures in UK
• Monuments of India at kamat.com
• Pictures and Articles of Monuments from around the world