Architectural devastation is a familiar byproduct of conflict, but the effects on a city can extend far beyond simply bricks and mortar. So what lessons can be learned from those most severely affected by war?
Throughout urban history cities have been regularly torn apart as collateral damage in wars and rebellions. Even so, the ravaging of the ancient city of Palmyra by the militant group Isis earlier this year was particularly shocking for its deliberate targeting of the Syrian city’s irreplaceable architectural heritage.
In a very public wave of destruction, Isis razed Palmyra’s 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel, which in more peaceful times attracted 150,000 tourists a year, dynamited the smaller Temple of Baalshamin, destroyed numerous venerable statues, and laid waste to the tombs of two Muslim holy men.
Of course, many of Syria’s historic cities have been devastated by the bitter fighting between government and rebel forces too, with much of ancient Aleppo, the “Vienna of the Middle East”, reduced to rubble ....
But any survey of war-damaged cities must inevitably focus on the mass destructions of the 20th century, when weaponry and ways of conducting war perfected the art of destroying a city. The second world war saw approximately 17,500 civilians killed in London, while in Germany 42,600 died in just one week during the bombing of Hamburg in 1943.
Despite the carnage, by the end of the war European cities had become adept at restoring transportation and essential services in a matter of days. Even in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, cities that suffered the biggest single bomb blasts the world has ever known, water and power were restored within a week. Electric power was available in most of Hiroshima by 7 August 1945, the day after the first atom bomb was dropped, and the railways resumed running the following day.
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Perhaps surprisingly, though, the city that suffered the most war damage – in terms of the percentage of buildings destroyed – is the German city of Jülich. Built on a crossing of the River Rur in what is now the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Jülich was considered one of the main obstacles to the Allies’ plan to occupy the Rhineland.
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In Georgia in 713 AD, the capital Armazi was so wrecked by Arab forces under Marwan ibn Muhammad that it was abandoned and never rebuilt. In 1221, Afghanistan’s Red City was home to 3,000 people until Ghengis Khan destroyed it. In India in 1565, Vijayanagara was probably the second largest city in the world, until it was captured and destroyed by Muslim armies; it has lain abandoned ever since. In Thailand, the old capital of Ayutthaya was captured and destroyed by the Burmese army in 1767 and never rebuilt.