Monuments in Europe

This and the following weekends of September, thousands of people are visiting the many cultural heritage sites there are in Europe. In many monuments hundreds of people come by to see what our ancestors have left over to us. Big monuments, smaller monuments, much visited monuments, less visited monuments, monuments of national interest or ones with local interest, many of them open their doors to the public. But why?

People want to know who they are, where they come from and how everything has become the way it is. The monuments show a part of our culture. And our culture defines us who we are. Only when we know our history, our cultural heritage, we have a personal identity which we can really stand for. Having an identity doesn't make it a better one, it is just a different one. When we know our culture we can meet other cultures without losing ourselves.

Wikipedia is trying to get it open monument day all year long for all the coming years for everyone, writing about the historical sites and places and shown with pictures. In this way we make the local history and cultural heritage visible so we can learn about it. For this purpose Wiki Loves Monuments is set up, to help Wikipedia getting all monuments in picture.

Already many many great pictures have been send in, but still there is a need for many more. A lot of people have donated their shots, and many of them have a great quality.

Sometimes a bit funny one is uploaded, like this picture of the old rectory in the Belgian town Stene.

You can help! By making pictures and uploading them, or look through your archives for pictures of your holidays with monuments on them. Donate those to make Wikipedia better and expanded with more information. Also you can win prizes for your pictures.

With a rich history visible, we can make it a rich future.

See for more information: www.wikilovesmonuments.eu