Survivors of War: Architecture before the 21st century

There are many ways we can look at the history of war: history books, poetry, fiction novels, paintings, photographs, and movies, to name a few. The possible approaches to the history of war are endless, but did you know that architecture is also a lens through which we can glimpse into the wars of years past? War destroys buildings but also builds new ones. Those who began the wars disappear, but the architecture that lived through it remains to tell stories we must not forget. Famous buildings and sites that we may not initially associate with war, such as The Louvre in France, the Neue Wache in Germany, Windsor Castle in England, the Colosseum in Italy, the Grand Kremlin Palace in Russia are memory trunks that hold captivating and profound stories on war waiting to be told. Architecture—a witness, product, victim, and survivor of war—provides a window into the history of war.

PREFACE

The idea for this book, the war histories of famous architectural buildings and sites, came to me during an ordinary visit to the Louvre Museum. As an art history graduate student and then after, an aspiring curator working in Paris, I was a frequent visitor of the Louvre. Regrettably, it was only after a dozen or so visits that I finally found my way to the less crowded basement floor, where I came upon the preserved ruins of the museum’s original architecture: a medieval fortress. This discovery of the Louvre’s genesis struck me. Aside from the well-known fact that it had once been the palace that the Sun King abandoned in favor of his new Versailles residence, I had never given much thought to the Louvre’s history due to my preoccupation with the many histories it exhibits. It was fascinating to think that this representative museum of Art with a capital ‘A’ was once a twelfth-century fortress that provided military defense for the city of Paris in times of war.

A quick online search further uncovered the Louvre’s history of war. As it turns out, war was responsible for both the Louvre’s beginnings as a fortress as well as its modern-day identity as the home for art objects from all over the world. War was not a chapter in the Louvre’s story, but a main thread woven into its identity. Interestingly, this not only holds true for the Louvre, but many landmarks and cultural sites throughout Europe.

Years later, I had the opportunity to write about this connection between famous architecture and war. The Kookbang-ilbo, or the National Defense Daily approached me in early 2019 to propose I write for their Arts and Culture section. I suggested this topic and the first installment of the column “War as told by Architecture,” The Louvre Museum, was published on July 15 later that year. 17 months, 76 installments, and 75 architectures later, these columns became the seed for this book. 

This passion project revisits the histories of war tucked away in the attics, or in the case of the Louvre, the basement of these buildings. Countless places usually seen through rose-colored glasses bear painful memories and permanent scars behind their façades. Their stories prompt a reconsideration of these sites beyond their attraction as tourist spots and reflection on the impact of war on people as well as the walls that surround, defend, shelter, represent, fail and at times, imprison.

Survivors of War: Architecture before the 21st century is not an exhaustive history of Europe’s wars or architecture. The chosen sites are organized by countries, which have been narrowed down to some of the most famous locations in France, Italy, England, Germany, Russia, Spain, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands, Turkey, Syria, Bosnia–Herzegovina, and Greece in no particular order. The first five chapters are each assigned to a country, while the last chapter groups architectural sites in multiple countries. The latter was organized in this way because these countries had less than three sites that I decided to include in this book. There are many palaces, bridges, fortresses, towers, and plazas with fascinating war stories that did not make it into this book, but that I hope to write about one day. To begin, here are the stories of those that are sure to capture any reader’s interest.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. CONTACT INFORMATION 3

II. BOOK DESCRIPTION 7

III. AUTHOR BIO 8

IV. FULL MANUSCRIT 10

1. PREFACE 11

2. FRANCE 13

2-1. THE LOUVRE MUSEUM 14

2-2. CASTLE OF RAMBOUILLET 26

2-3. PALACE OF VERSAILLES 30

2-4. LES INVALIDES 36

2-5. ARC DE TRIOMPHE DE L'ÉTOILE 42

2-6. THE EIFFEL TOWER 48

2-7. MAGINOT LINE 54

3. UK 61

3-1. THE TOWER OF LONDON 62

3-2. WESTMINSTER ABBEY 69

3-3. WINDSOR CASTLE 76

3-4. DOVER CASTLE 83

3-5. CARLISLE CASTLE 90

3-6. EDINBURGH CASTLE 97

3-7. TRAFALGAR SQUARE 104

3-8. THE BRITISH MUSEUM 110

4. GERMANY 117

4-1. DRESDNER FRAUENKIRCHE 118

4-2. HEIDELBERG CASTLE 125

4-3. THE BERLIN WALL 132

4-4. BRANDENBURG GATE 140

4-5. VICTORY COLUMN 146

4-6. KAISER WILHELM MEMORIAL CHURCH 152

4-7. NEW GUARDHOUSE / NEUE WACHE 157

5. RUSSIA 165

5-1. RED SQUARE 166

5-2. THE KREMLIN PALACE 171

5-3. HERMITAGE MUSEUM 177

5-4. PETER AND PAUL FORTRESS 183

6. ITALY 189

6-1. THE COLOSSEUM 190

6-2. TRIUMPHAL ARCH OF TITUS 197

6-3. ARCH OF CONSTANTINE 202

6-4. THE MONASTERY OF MONTE CASSINO 207

6-5. CASTEL SANT’ANGELO 213

6-6. ST. MARK’S BASILICA 218

7. OTHER 225

7-1. HAGIA SOPHIA 226

7-2. WALLS OF CONSTANTINOPLE 233

7-3. STARI MOST 240

7-4. SCHӦNBRUNN PALACE 246

7-5. MAUTHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP 252

7-6. THE PARTHENON 258

7-7. HOUSE OF ANNE FRANK 266

7-8. FORTRESS OF SUOMENNLINA 274

7-9. PRAGUE CASTLE 280

7-10. WILANÓW PALACE 287

7-11. TOWN OF GUERNICA 293

7-12. PRADO MUSEUM OF ART 299

8. COPYRIGHT 305

Major Contents

"The Louvre Museum’s war history centers around the famous Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821). Napoleon entered the Paris Military Academy (École Militaire) in 1784 and within a year, he was commissioned as an artillery lieutenant. He took office as deputy commander of the Corsica National Army during the French Revolution in 1789. With the success of the November 1799 coup d’état, Napoleon became a powerful figure of authority and eventually went on to become the emperor of France’s first empire from 1804 to 1815. Although he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the British Royal Navy at the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon nevertheless conquered the Continent by bringing down the Prussian and Russian empires and defeating Austria, which effectively dissolved the Holy Roman Empire."

- THE LOUVRE MUSEUM, 18p

"Edward IV of the victorious House of York was crowned king, and Henry VI was executed in the Tower of London. Later, when Edward IV died after more than a decade of rule, his 12-year old son Edward V was crowned king in 1483, but just two months after he ascended the throne, the young king went missing along with his brother, Richard of Shrewsbury, the Duke of York. In 1674, workmen repairing the stairs of the White Tower of the Tower of London, found a box containing the remains of two children, presumed to be the remains of the two brothers. Eventually, the Wars of the Roses concluded with the death of Richard III in the Battle of Bosworth Field, thus opening up the era of the House of Tudors, who ruled the Kingdoms of England and Ireland under five monarchs, and the accession of Henry VII."

- THE TOWER OF LONDON, 65p

"Home to 127 factories and industries, Dresden was the seventh largest German city and the center of telecommunications and manufacturing by the 20th century. For this reason, this important industrial city became an obvious target for Allies during World War II. From February 13 to February 15 in 1945, 722 British Air Force bombers and 527 U.S. Army Air Force bombers flew over Dresden and dropped more than 3,900 tons of bombs upon the beautiful city. The heat generated by bombings and bombs created a firestorm throughout Dresden. This tragic bombing destroyed 90% of Dresden and killed about 25,000 innocent civilians. The Church of Our Lady endured two days of Allied bombing, but eventually succumbed at 10 a.m. on February 15 to the heat generated 650,000 incendiary bombs that fell on the city. This was mainly because the material of the church, sandstone, was particularly vulnerable to heat."

- DRESDNER FRAUENKIRCHE, 121p

"With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the last Tsar of the Romanov dynasty of Russia, Nicholas II (1868-1918), had 15 million soldiers jump into the battlefield in order to mollify the people's discontent. Sadly, due to the incapacity of the commanders, 800,000 Russians were defeated by the far fewer 160,000 Germans in the Battle of Tannenberg. Due to the void left by the mass of young men taken into war, the labor force in Russia rapidly deteriorated, which in turn resulted in greater suffering for the people. The prolonged period of such dire circumstances and hardships during World War I, the last dynasty of Russia collapsed after the February and October Revolutions of 1917, upon which, the Soviet regime was established."

- HERMITAGE MUSEUM, 180p

"The name "Colosseum" comes from the Latin word Colossale, which means "colossal." It is believed that the Colosseum’s name came from its location near to a 30-meter-tall colossal statue of Emperor Nero that no longer exists. The enormous amphitheater is 188 meters in diameter, 156 meters in length, 527 meters in circumference and 48 meters in height. Made of four arcaded stories, this single structure exhibits all three architectural styles of Greece and Rome. The ground level is made of columns in the simple and heavy Doric order, the second story is made in the soft and delicate Ionic order, and the third and fourth stories are made in the slender and decorative Corinthian order. Marble decorates the outer walls while wood and reddish sand covers the stadium’s floor in order to disguise the blood that was spilt from the violent games that took place there." 

- THE COLOSSEUM, 192p

"The official symbol of UNESCO is modeled on the Parthenon. The reason for this is because the Parthenon is representative of UNESCO’s efforts to protect cultural treasures. In order to prevent further damage due natural disasters, time, and wars, UNESCO designated the Parthenon as World Heritage Site No.I. There have been renovations amde throughout the temple, but different marble colors were used to differentiate between the original and repaired columns. To reach this temple, which sits atop the Acropolis, visitors need to pass by many other sites. Among them, Herodes Atticus Theater, is an outdoor theater located on the southwest part of the Acropolis. Parts of the Parthenon are displayed in the British Museum in London, England. When will they return to their original home?" 

- THE PARTHENON, 258p