Wiki Loves Monuments

International photo contest ​​Wiki Loves Monuments 2015 has officially ended! We are proud to present you 14 winning pictures from all over the world.

As you know, ​​Wiki Loves Monuments has two noble missions: to draw wide attention to [preserving of] cultural heritage monuments and fill Wikimedia Commons with their free images, ready to use. Wikipedia, of course, receives the main benefit as the photographs uploaded by many participants illustrate then articles in the encyclopaedia.

231,431 files from 6,618 users from 33 countries (while 41 users uploaded over a thousand each)—these are impressive numbers. Clearly, it should have been very hard for international jury members to make their choice, even though they received only best of the best pictures from national contests. There are photos of lighthouses among the winners, mosques, monasteries, castles, a town hall and even an underpass—and how wonderful they are! Not all of the protected cultural objects can or should be beautiful, but these monuments really are.

The international jury’s final report will be issued in the coming weeks. Right now you can also view gallery of the finalists and write a Wikipedia article about the monument you liked best!

1st place: Aerial photograph of Westerheversand Lighthouse in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany,
by Phantom3Pix, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

2nd place: Sacra di San Michele (Saint Michael’s Abbey) on Mount Pirchiriano, Piedmont, Italy,
by Elio Pallard, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

3rd place: Lobby of the New Town Hall in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany,
by Raycer, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

4th place: View from the Marathon Gate into the Olympiastadion in Berlin, Germany,
by Jan Künzel, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

5th place: The head of a sandstone Buddha statue in Wat Maha That, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya Province, Thailand,
by Siripatwongpin, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

6th place: Château de Chambord, Loir-et-Cher departament, France,
by Arnaud Scherer, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

7th place: The Opernpassage in the Innere Stadt in Vienna, Austria,
by Thomas Ledl, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

8th place: Ensemble of Solovetsky Monastery. Arkhangelsk region, Russia,
by Алексей Задонский, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

9th place: A procession of Buddhists during Hae Pha Khuen That Festival at Wat Phra Maha That Woramahawihan, Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand,
by Kosin Sukhum, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

10th place: A shot from the interior of Vakil Mosque in Shiraz, Iran,
by Mohammad Reza Domiri Ganji, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

11th place: View of Al-Rifa’i Mosque (right) and Mosque-Madrassa of Sultan Hassan (left) from Cairo Citadel, Egypt,
by Mohamed kamal 1984, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

12th place: Museum of the Inconfidência, Ouro Preto, Brazil,
by Ricardotakamura, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

13th place: Cluj-Mănăștur Calvaria Church, Romania,
by Pan Ioan, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

14th place: Bosquet “Der Fächer” (hand fan) in the gardens of Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria,
by Herzi Pinki, freely licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.