Ruins

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"Ruined" redirects here. For the 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, see Ruined (play).

The ruins of the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. Much of the original marble which formed the roof and frieze now forms a pile of rubble at its base.

Ruins is a term used to describe the remains of human-made architecture: structures that were once complete but which have fallen into a state of partial or complete disrepair, due to lack of maintenance or deliberate acts of destruction. Natural disaster, war and depopulation are the most common root causes, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and scavenging.

There are famous ruins all over the world, from ancient sites in China, the Indus valley and Judea to Zimbabwe in Africa, ancient Greek, Egyptian and Roman sites in the Mediterranean basin, and Incan and Mayan sites in the Americas. Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeologists and anthropologists, whether they were once individual fortifications, places of worship, houses and utility buildings, or entire villages, towns and cities. Many ruins have become UNESCO World Heritage Sites in recent years, to identify and preserve them as areas of outstanding value to humanity.^[1]

[edit] Cities in ruins

San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: Ruins in vicinity of Post and Grant Avenue.

Ancient cities were often highly militarized and fortified defensive settlements. In times of war they were the central focus of armed conflict and would be sacked and ruined in defeat.^[2] Although less central to modern conflict, vast areas of 20th century cities such as Warsaw, Dresden, Coventry, London and Berlin were left in ruins following World War II, and a number of major cities around the world – such as Beirut, Kabul, Sarajevo, Grozny and Baghdad – have been partially or completely ruined in recent years as a result of more localised warfare.^[3]

Entire cities have also been ruined, and some occasionally lost completely, to natural disasters. The ancient city of Pompeii was completely lost during a volcanic eruption in the 1st century CE, its uncovered ruins now preserved as a World Heritage Site. The city of Lisbon was totally destroyed in 1755 by a massive earthquake and tsunami, and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake left the city in almost complete ruin.

[edit] Moral contemplation of ruins

The contemplation of Roman ruins gave pause to Christians, who saw in the empty shells of architecture moral lessons on the subject of the Vanity of human endeavor. Constantin-François Volney saw in ruins the subject for Meditiations on the revolutions of empires.

[edit] Deliberate destruction

Ury House, Aberdeenshire ruined by removal of the roof after the Second World War to avoid taxation.

Apart from acts of war, some important historic buildings have fallen victim to deliberate acts of destruction as a consequence of social, political and economic factors. The spoliation of public monuments in Rome was under way during the fourth century, when it was covered in protective legislation in the Theodosian Code^[4] and in new legislation of Majorian.^[5] and the dismantling increased once popes were free of imperial restrictions.^[6] Marble was still being burned for agricultural lime in the Roman Camapgna into the nineteenth century.

Winston Churchill visiting the ruins of Coventry Cathedral after the Coventry Blitz of World War II

In Europe, many religious buildings suffered as a result of the politics of the day. In the 16th century, the English monarch Henry VIII set about confiscating the property of monastic institutions in a campaign which became known as the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Many abbeys and monsateries fell into ruin when their assets, including lead roofs, were stripped.

Following World War II, a number of European historic buildings fell into ruin as a result of taxation policies, which required all structures with roofs to pay substantial property tax. The owners of these buildings, like Fetteresso Castle (now restored) and Slains Castle in Scotland, deliberately destroyed their roofs in protest at, and defiance of, the new taxes. Other decrees of government have had a more direct result, such as the case of Beverston Castle, in which the English parliament ordered significant destruction of the castle to prevent it being used by opposition Royalists. Post-colonial Ireland has encouraged the ruin of grand Georgian houses, symbols of British imperialism.^[7]

[edit] Relics of steel and wooden towers

Ruins made-to-measure: the "Roman Ruin" in the park at Schönbrunn, c 1800

As a rule, towers built of steel are dismantled, when not used any more, because their construction can be either rebuilt on a new site or if state of construction does not allow a direct reuse, the metal can be recycled economically. However sometimes tower basements remain, because their removal can sometimes be expensive. One example of such a basement is the basement of the former radio mast of Deutschlandsender Herzberg/Elster.

The basements of large wooden towers such as Transmitter Ismaning may also be left behind, because removing them would be difficult.

The contemplation of "rust belt" post-industrial ruins is in its infancy.^[8]

[edit] Aesthetics of ruins

In the Middle Ages Roman ruins were inconvenient impediments to modern life, quarries for pre-shaped blocks for building projects, or of marble to be burnt for agricultural lime, and subjects for satisfying commentaries on the triumph of Christianity and the general sense of the world's decay, in what was assumed to be its last age, before the Second Coming. With the Renaissance, ruins took on new roles among a cultural elite, as examples for a consciously revived and purified architecture all' antica, and for a new aesthetic appreciation of their innate beauty as objects of venerable decay.^[9] The chance discovery of Nero's Domus Aurea at the turn of the sixteenth century, and the early excavations at Herculaneum and Pompeii had marked effects on current architectural styles, in Raphael's Rooms at the Vatican and in neoclassical interiors, respectively. The new sense of historicism that accompanied neoclassicism led some artists and designers to conceive of the modern classicising monuments of their own day as they would one day appear as ruins.

Ruin value (German: Ruinenwert) is the concept that a building be designed such that if it eventually collapsed, it would leave behind aesthetically pleasing ruins that would last far longer without any maintenance at all. The idea was pioneered by Albert Speer while planning for the 1936 Summer Olympics and published as "The Theory of Ruin Value" (Die Ruinenwerttheorie).

Ruins remain a popular subject for painting and creative photography and are often romanticized in film and literature, providing scenic backdrops or used as metaphors for other forms of decline or decay. For example, the ruins of Dunstanburgh Castle in England inspired Turner to create several paintings; in 1989 the ruined Dunnottar Castle in Scotland was used for filming of Hamlet . Ruins are also found in many places in the online game Runescape. The Civilization series of turn-based strategy computer games features ruins as special tiles which may provide the player with a bonus when explored.

[edit] See also

• Dissolution of the monasteries
• Folly, for garden ruins
• Ozymandias
• Shipwreck

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ruins

• Christopher Woodward, In Ruins (London: Vintage, 2002)
• Tim Edensor, Industrial Ruins: Space, Aesthetics and Materiality (London: Berg, [2005)
• Dylan Trigg, The Aesthetics of Decay: Nothingness, Nostalgia, and the Absence of Reason(New York: Peter Lang, 2006)
• Robert Ginsberg, The Aesthetics of Ruins (New York/Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004)
• Bibliography: Loss, Decay, Ending of Place
• Macaulay, Rose, The Pleasure of Ruins