National Parks & Landmarks Charms

A monument is erected to pay tribute to a notable person or event in history. People have been erecting monument-like structures worldwide for millenia. Symbols of ancient civilizations, such as the pyramids of Egypt or the Parthenon of Greece, are common. Thousands of people were needed to construct these massive monuments. It has been more than two centuries since the first monuments were erected. Immigration from Europe was welcomed by the Statue of Liberty in New York City.

Often, planned cities are built around existing structures. A year before the city’s foundations were laid, work on the Washington Monument was already well underway. Brasilia, the new capital of Brazil, was built around a series of monumental landmarks.

Large structures have been erected for a variety of reasons throughout history. In terms of artificial systems, the Great Wall of China is the largest. It was constructed as a defense against foreign invaders. For centuries, political monuments have been built to demonstrate the strength of a nation or its people. It’s common to see Lenin statues in Moscow and other Russian cities. As a deterrent, East Germany constructed the Berlin Wall.

Columns throughout history have supported the weight of ceilings and temples. Like Nelson’s Column in London’s Trafalgar Square, some stand-alone with a statue of the person they honor atop them. Many cities have arches that span streets to testament to their military prowess.

The ancient world’s monumental public works projects demonstrate an impressive degree of the human organization without power and machinery. For example, in 2500 BCE, the Great Pyramid of Giza was constructed before the Egyptians had even heard of the pulley system or had vehicles with wheels.

City walls, cathedrals, and castles were largely unaffected by the rise of mechanization that transformed medieval work organizations. Because the freemasons refused to handle large blocks of stone, the Smaller stone blocks comprised Gothic and Romanesque constructions, but their grand scale was still achieved through weight-lifting technology. In addition, labor was organized in a very different way than it had been in antiquity. In addition to the stonemasons, these monumental structures were constructed entirely by non-paid laborers, including bellfounders, roofers, glaziers, and carpenters.

Craftsmen in medieval times, particularly those who worked on cathedrals, were believed to be humble, self-effacing artisans who worked fervently and anonymously for God’s glory and their salvation for centuries. A number of academics have debunked this myth. The remaining records show the names and wages of medieval builders and occasional protests over wages. There was a lot of individualism in the group. Historians have discovered the terms of over 25,000 artisans who worked on medieval churches, proving that the craftspeople were not anonymous. Since then, scholars have concluded that medieval artisans were more liberated and unrestrained than their classical counterparts.