Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2012/How to get a list of monuments

For Wiki Loves Monuments you need a list of monuments in your country. This page describes how to get a list of monuments.

What is a monument?

When you hear "monument" you might think of a statue or a memorial. The scope is much wider: Wiki Loves Monuments is about historic buildings and heritage sites. A lot of countries have a clear definition. Some examples:

• The Netherlands has Rijksmonumenten: Historic sites of national importance which are at least 50 years of age. It contains mostly historic buildings, but also parts of buildings, archaeological sites and statues.
• France has the Monument historique: A building or a specific part of a building, a collection of buildings, or gardens, bridges, and other structures. These locations are designated because of their importance to France's architectural and historical cultural heritage.
• The United Kingdom has the Listed buildings: Mostly historic buildings. Other structures such as bridges, monuments, sculptures, war memorials, and even milestones and mileposts and the Beatles' Abbey Road pedestrian crossing are also listed.
• The United Stats has the National Register of Historic Places: An official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties: district, site, structure, building, or object.

First you have to figure out for you country what the official designation system is. We're talking about country, but it might not be organized on a state level in your country. That's for example the case in Belgium and Germany. The WikiProject Historic sites is a good place to start searching. For an overview what we know, see Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments 2012/What is a monument.