A new list by World Monuments Fund has been recently announced by the organization’s president Bonnie Burnham. The World Monuments Watch 2010 presents 93 endangered sites located across the globe in 47 countries. Among the threats to the places are present or potential neglect, vandalism, war, disaster or e.g. rapid urban development.

The aim of the 2010 Watch List is according to its authors to draw attention of wider public to the sites at risk pointing out the importance of balance between heritage concerns and social, economic, and environmental interests of communities.

Issued every two years, the list is compiled by an international panel of experts that chose for the 2010 edition for instance the renowned Peruvian site, Machu Picchu, or Phajoding, a monastery high in the mountains of Bhutan. Japanese traditional townhouses from the early 1600s called machiya in Kyoto are also on the list because of the imminent threat of being replaced by new constructions. In Spanish Seville, a proposed commercial tower threatens to damage the iconic landscape of the city.

On the other hand, Gingerbread Houses of Port-au-Prince on Haiti suffers because of the unstable political situation and poverty. The list however does not include only ancient sites – there are for example 9 sites from the US including Taliesin and Taliesin West.

The World Monuments Watch is not just an academic activity as it has real results. Not only has it helped the sites to obtain the needed funds but also to prevent destruction of many of the world’s cultural heritage. A Japanese port town of Tomo could lose its historic character because a landfill and a bridge planned to be built there. The listing of the town helped to draw attention to the site and as a result the Japanese courts canceled the construction.

The full list can be found here.

World Monuments Watch 2010

Best-Known Sites: Al Hadba’ Minaret in Mosul, Iraq; Machu Picchu, Peru; the historic landscapes of Seville and Toledo, Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, pilgrimage route of Santiago de Compostela; Taliesin, Taliesin West, and Taos Pueblo, USA.

Oldest Site: Human activity at Wonderwerk Cave in South Africa dates back some 2 million years.

Most Recent Site: The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, was commissioned in

1969 and finished in 1980.

20th-Century Sites:

Wiener Werkbundsiedlung, Vienna, Austria

Santorium Joseph Lemaire, Tombeek, Belgium

New Gourna Village, Luxor, Egypt

Las Pozas, Xilitla, Mexico

Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain

Corozal Cemetery, Panama City, Panama

Tecton Buildings at Dudley Zoological Gardens, Dudley, UK

Miami Marine Stadium, Miami, Florida, USA

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Taliesin, Wisconsin, USA

Taliesin West, Arizona, USA

The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library, Georgia, USA

The Merritt Parkway, Connecticut, USA

Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas,

Venezuela

Parque del Este, Caracas, Venezuela

U.S. Sites:

Cultural Landscape of Hadley, Massachusetts

Miami Marine Stadium, Florida

Phillis Wheatley Elementary School, New Orleans, Louisiana

St. Louis Cemetery No. 2, New Orleans, Louisiana

Taliesin, Spring Green, Wisconsin

Taliesin West, Scottsdale, Arizona

Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

The Atlanta-Fulton Central Public Library, Georgia

The Merritt Parkway, Connecticut