Whenever they tell you it can't be done in the modern age, show them Dresden.
Everything you see in the bottom image was rebuilt in the last 20 years... (thread) 🧵
The German city of Dresden was a jewelry box of Baroque beauty — once known as the Florence of the Elbe. This is how it looked at the turn of the 20th century:
Many don't know the extent of the devastation that happened here. When Churchill turned his bombers on civilian targets in 1945 to demoralize Germany, Dresden was obliterated.
25,000 people died in one night — and possibly far more.
It remained Churchill's biggest regret. He said himself: "the destruction of Dresden remains a serious query against the conduct of Allied bombing."
You've seen this famous image before:
Some 80% of buildings in the historic center were damaged or totally destroyed. Everything in this image (the palatial complex called the Zwinger, and the church behind) was decimated.
And this was the Frauenkirche, the luminous church at the heart of Dresden that was once one of Europe's largest domes...
After the war, when the USSR imposed a puppet state over East Germany, the communists ruled that the church must lie in rubble rather than be rebuilt.
Ostensibly, this was to memorialize the war — more likely, it was for the same reason it was destroyed in the first place: to demoralize.
The Soviets were effective at weaponizing architecture. They went about clearing away the remains of war-ravaged beauty and erecting brutalist blocks across Europe.
Postwar Dresden became a vastly different city...
Its once-charming squares became exercises in building the model cities of socialism.
The Frauenkirche lay in pieces for 50 years — until the Berlin Wall fell and Germans went about healing half-century-old wounds.
In 1993, the people of Dresden decided to piece their church back together, brick by brick.
Every stone in the pile was sorted and analyzed. Except for a brand new dome, the church was built with as much original stone as possible, to the exact specifications of the original — as much as could be pieced together from old photographs.
Rebuilding took 11 years, and in 2005, the cathedral was reconsecrated; rising like a phoenix from the ashes. It was finished one year ahead of schedule.
And here's what happened around it. Elegant historicism that is putting Dresden back on the map of Europe's most awe-inspiring centers.
Much more work is planned, but it's fighting considerable bureaucratic resistance.
Dresden's revival isn't important because it's an insightful rebuilding project. It's important because it proves that beauty is what binds cultures together.
Here's proof: the gilded orb and cross atop the new dome were crafted by an English goldsmith — one whose father partook in the firebombing of 1945.
Queen Elizabeth contributed directly to its funding.
The Frauenkirche was left in rubble perhaps because it reminded people of the terrifying risk of war. You might say sights like that deter future conflict — but rebuilding it is what brought nations together.
Acts of mutual rebuilding are what brought peace to war-torn Europe.
Dresden took the traditions of its past and built them (literally) into hope for the future.
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There is no mortar holding it together — the stones are held in perfect balance by nothing but gravity.
So what are the other best-preserved Roman wonders? A thread... 🧵
Each stone of the Segovia Aqueduct is perfectly shaped to fit tightly with the next. It was in use from antiquity all the way up to 1973. And what you see here is just the city's visible portion — it starts 11 miles away in the mountains...
The other stunningly-preserved aqueduct is the Pont du Gard, part of a 31 mile system. Again, stones were so precisely cut that no mortar or cement was needed.
For a sense of scale, look at the people crossing its bridge (water channel on top, bridge below):
Well, in the 3rd century, the Roman Empire began to buckle under the weight of state spending.
It frantically "printed" money until things went horribly wrong... (thread) 🧵
When Augustus slowed the expansion of the empire, wealth stopped flowing from conquered lands into the treasury. Managing expenditures (construction, armies, bureaucracy) became increasingly difficult.
Whenever costs exceeded tax income, emperors minted new coins to cover it. Mining precious metals increased the supply of gold and silver coinage.
Things remained pretty stable for two centuries...
This church has been under construction for 124 years. In 2026, it will become the tallest in the world.
It isn't funded by the state or even the Church — it's being built entirely by the people.
And it's far more impressive than you realize... (thread) 🧵
Barcelona's Sagrada Familia is proof that intergenerational construction is still alive. When complete, it will be the world's second tallest religious building of any kind.
142 years ago, it existed only in the mind of Antoni Gaudí — Spain's most visionary architect.
Nobody had seen his strange mix of Gothic and Art Nouveau before. Gaudí saw natural beauty as a gift from God, and made this the blueprint of his work.
Should federal buildings only be allowed to be neoclassical?
A thread... 🧵
Trump's "Promoting Beautiful Federal Civic Architecture" executive order would've prevented brutalist blocks like the FBI HQ if it existed in 1965.
But is that the right thing to do?
The order, revoked by Biden, restricted new federal buildings to "classical" styles: Neoclassical, Georgian, Federal, Greek Revival, Beaux-Arts, Art Deco — and what it deemed "historic humanistic architecture".
The most uplifting architectural revival happening today is in Budapest.
The city is reclaiming its identity after decades of communist rule.
Here's what's going on... (thread) 🧵
And another example. Façades (and much more) all across the city are being brought back to life.
So why is it happening?
In the 19th century, Budapest became a twin capital of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It enshrined its lofty ambitions — to be the easternmost bastion of Western civilization — in architecture.