Worldcrunch
France’s churches are a rich religious heritage that, unlike other European countries, largely belong to the national or local governments. But with strained budgets and years of neglect, keeping these historic churches standing has become a daunting and costly struggle.
More than 100 years ago, German colonists destroyed the culture of the Chagga people in Tanzania. Now the Chagga are trying to regain their lost history through books by German missionary to the region Bruno Gutmann, the author’s great-grandfather.
As good as the Paris Games have been to the French capital, does that mean we must forever fix the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower? It looks like Mayor Anne Hidalgo may have drunk her own Kool-Aid — or too much water from the Seine.
Increasingly extreme temperatures are forcing summertime cultural events and festivals, from concerts to Spain’s traditional castell human towers, to adapt to a new climate reality.
Year after year, the Camino trails leading to Santiago de Compostela have been setting new records for visitor numbers — and are now among France’s most popular walking routes. Behind this craze, a small ecosystem has grown up to serve today’s pilgrims.
Tunisian troglodyte villages in the Dahar mountain range are mostly empty as a result of policies dating back several decades. But locals, concerned about losing part of their identity and history, are mobilizing to maintain a presence and to safeguard their heritage.
A government plan to build a series of highways that pass through centuries-old cemeteries in Cairo has sparked public backlash in recent years, as the Egyptian capital must measure itself against both places like Dubai and Manhattan..
Throughout the ages, convents have been adapted and transformed to fulfil the needs of growing cities such as Portugal’s capital city Lisbon. Now more than ever, with an ongoing housing crisis, researchers, politicians and developers are looking at convents to be transformed into housing solutions.
Vladimir Putin has tried to tie Russia’s cultural achievements to the nation’s past empire and his modern imperial ambitions — still, it’s a mistake to try to bury the nation’s great art, music and literature, argues Ukrainian publication Ukrainska Pravda.
It has been almost 12 years since the author left his hometown, which was at the center of the Syrian uprising. He’s made an academic career studying the impact of war on architecture and cities and researching acts of deliberate destruction.
PARIS — Donning a ribbon-trimmed red bowler hat and a white tunic embroidered with black in what turned out to be his last concert, Papa Wemba stayed true to personal code of conduct: Always look sharp. The tenor of Congolese rumba, who collapsed and died on stage while performing at a music festival in Abidjan […]
TURIN — Refugees have come to Italy from all across war-torn Iraq and Syria, from the monasteries of Mosul to the Assyrian villages of the Khabur valley and the Christian churches of the Nineveh plains. Among the millions now languishing in refugee camps are people from all walks of life, including government bureaucrats, university professors, […]
BEIJING — Like others, as a child I used to daydream about taking a shovel and hunting through our yard for priceless treasure buried from ancient times. What I never would have imagined is that such an act can get you into serious trouble — even if it’s done on your own property. It’s a […]
Jihadists destroyed 14 of the 16 sacred mausoleums of the “city of 333 saints” two years ago. Local and international efforts are restoring the sites, an encouraging a more tolerant Islam.