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Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate destruction by humans, or uncontrollable destruction by natural phenomena. The most common root causes that yield ruins in their wake are Natural disaster, War, and population decline, with many structures becoming progressively derelict over time due to long-term weathering and Scavenger.
There are famous ruins all over the world, with notable sites originating from ancient China, the Indus Valley, ancient Iran, ancient Israel and Judea, ancient Iraq, ancient Greece, ancient Egypt, ancient Yemen, Ancient Rome, ancient India sites throughout the Mediterranean Basin, and Inca Empire and Mayan sites in the Americas. Ruins are of great importance to historians, archaeology and anthropology, whether they were once individual , places of worship, ancient universities, 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.
Although less central to modern conflict, vast areas of 20th-century cities such as Warsaw, Dresden, Coventry, Volgograd, Königsberg, 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 localized warfare.http://urban.cccb.org/urbanLibrary/htmlDbDocs/A036-C.html Stephen Graham, Postmortem City: Towards an Urban Geopolitics
Entire cities have also been ruined, and some occasionally lost completely, to Natural disaster. The Ancient Rome city of Pompeii in modern-day Italy was completely destroyed during a volcanic eruption in the 1st century CE, and its uncovered ruins are now preserved as a World Heritage Site. The city of Lisbon in Portugal was also completely destroyed in 1755 by a massive earthquake and tsunami; and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake in the United States had left the city in almost complete ruin.
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 and monastery fell into ruin when their assets, including lead roofs, were stripped.
In the 20th century, 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 Cavalier. Ireland has encouraged the ruin of grand Georgian houses, seen as symbols of Britain.
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.But see Tim Edensor, Industrial ruins: spaces, aesthetics and materiality, 2005.
In the period of Romanticism ruins (mostly of castles) were frequent object for painters, place of meetings of romantic poets, nationalist students etc. (e.g. Bezděz Castle in Bohemia, Hambach Castle in Germany, Devin Castle in Slovakia).
Ruin value () 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. Joseph Michael Gandy completed for Sir John Soane in 1832 an atmospheric watercolor of the architect's vast Bank of England rotunda as a picturesquely overgrown ruin, that is an icon of Romanticism.Widely illustrated in this context, including in David Watkin, The English Vision: the picturesque in architecture, landscape, and garden design, 1982:62PERPINYA, Núria. Ruins, Nostalgia and Ugliness. Five Romantic perceptions of Middle Ages and a spoon of Game of Thrones and Avant-garde oddity. Berlin: Logos Verlag. 2014 Ruinenwert was popularized in the 20th century by Albert Speer while planning for the 1936 Summer Olympics and published as Die Ruinenwerttheorie ("The Theory of Ruin Value").
Ruins remain a popular subject for painting and creative photographySimon O'Corra: France in Ruins, Buildings in Decay, London 2011 and are often romanticized in film and literature, providing scenic backdrops or used as 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.
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