World Monuments Fund Commits $7 Million to Safeguard Global Heritage in 2026

World Monuments Fund will commit more than $7 million to 21 heritage projects launching in 2026, backing a mix of urgent physical conservation, long term management planning, and hands on training programmes across five continents.

CAPA PRINCIPAL CINE ESTÚDIO NAMIBE ©WALTER FERNANDES GOETHE INSTITUT MG 6193 BR - Cópia

The announcement, dated 11 February 2026, positions the funding as a next step for sites featured on the 2025 World Monuments Watch, WMF’s nomination based advocacy programme designed to turn international visibility into practical, locally led action. The 2026 portfolio reflects the pressures defining heritage right now: climate related damage, post crisis recovery, unsustainable tourism, and the steady erosion of traditional knowledge that has historically kept places alive.

WMF President and CEO Bénédicte de Montlaur framed the new round of support as an effort to help communities “see what’s coming” and respond in time, rather than after loss becomes irreversible. The language is pragmatic and forward looking: the emphasis is not only on restoring fabric, but on strengthening the systems around it, from skills pipelines and local stewardship to planning, interpretation, and sustainable reuse.

From restoration to readiness

WMF’s 2026 commitments group into three broad tracks.

First is physical conservation and intervention, the most visible side of preservation, where buildings, artworks, landscapes and infrastructure require stabilisation, repair, and specialist treatment. This includes projects such as the Chapel of the Sorbonne in Paris, where long standing structural issues and conservation needs have kept one of the Latin Quarter’s landmark monuments largely inaccessible for decades. WMF’s partnership with the City of Paris and the Chancellerie des Universités de Paris aims to restore key architectural and artistic elements and establish the conditions for a meaningful public reopening.

Also in Paris, WMF’s ongoing work at the Church of Saint Eustache continues a phased programme that treats historic wall paintings and chapels while improving how visitors understand the building’s layered history. The next stage focuses on the Saint Vincent de Paul Chapel, home to Keith Haring’s final triptych, where conservation is positioned not as a one off intervention but as an ongoing responsibility tied to public access.

Second is heritage management and community engagement, where the priority is not only saving buildings but helping communities sustain them. Here, WMF is supporting projects that blend documentation, cultural mapping, destination planning and interpretation, often as a foundation for future conservation and community benefit. In Antakya, Türkiye, for example, WMF’s work builds on emergency stabilisation following the 2023 earthquake, advancing the planning required for long term reconstruction at key sacred sites intertwined with the city’s identity.

Third is training, where WMF invests in the people who will do the work in the decades ahead. A notable example is Bridge to Crafts Careers in New Orleans, a paid cohort model that places workforce development inside active conservation projects. The 2026 programme centres on St Louis Cemetery No 2, linking employment pathways to urgent preservation needs, while addressing a wider skills shortage in traditional building trades.

FRA Chapel Sorbonne Exterior Adam Rainoff

A global spread with specific local outcomes

The 2026 list stretches from major historic capitals to places where heritage is less protected precisely because it is too recent, too remote, or too politically complex.

In Japan, WMF is supporting recovery on the Noto Peninsula, where the January 2024 earthquake damaged historic streetscapes and shrines central to community life. The work focuses on restoration, documentation, and long term stewardship rooted in local participation, aiming to rebuild both physical structures and cultural continuity.

In India, WMF is backing efforts at Safdar Jang’s Tomb in New Delhi, where the site’s Mughal charbagh garden system, including its water features and pathways, faces environmental stress and climate risk. The approach combines archival research, climate suitability analysis, and community engagement to revive the garden’s historic intent while strengthening resilience.

In Morocco, the focus turns to the Jewish heritage of Debdou, where synagogues, cemeteries, the mellah and other communal structures remain as fragile earthen architecture at increasing risk. WMF’s work begins with documentation and condition assessment, moving toward a rehabilitation master plan and the identification of a site for conservation and adaptive reuse as an interpretation centre that serves local residents while reconnecting to the wider diaspora.

In Portugal, WMF continues multi phase work at the National Palace of Sintra, known for one of Europe’s most significant ensembles of historic tilework. The January 2026 launch phase targets representative typologies of glazed tiles and mosaic floors, with in situ conservation carried out under a policy that keeps the site open during works, turning preservation into a public facing process rather than a closed door operation. WMF is also fundraising for the terracotta sculptures of Alcobaça Monastery, beginning with a pilot intervention designed to establish methods for safeguarding a rare and monumental body of baroque terracotta sculpture.

In Angola, Cinema Studio Namibe is positioned as a modernist landmark whose deterioration has pushed it away from its intended public role. WMF’s first step is a comprehensive condition assessment and conservation planning process aimed at defining a phased restoration and adaptive reuse roadmap.

JPN Noto Peninsula Earthquake Heritage Sites

A clear UK thread

For readers closer to home, Belfast Assembly Rooms stands out as a significant UK inclusion. Built in the eighteenth century and later adapted for commercial use, the building has been vacant and deteriorating since 2000. Following its Watch inclusion, WMF supported advocacy that contributed to Belfast City Council acquiring the building in 2025. The 2026 work focuses on documentation, emergency conservation, planning for sustainable reuse, and interpretation, with an emphasis on bringing the landmark back into public life.

Who is supporting the work

WMF notes that the 2026 commitments are supported in part by contributions including the AXA Foundation for Human Progress as Lead Partner for the World Monuments Watch, Accor as Sustainable Tourism Partner for the 2025 Watch, and additional support from donors including The Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust, the Gerard B Lambert Foundation, and the Freeman Foundation, among others.

Taken together, the 2026 programme reads less like a single announcement and more like a statement of method. Preservation here is not presented as nostalgia. It is infrastructure for culture, community, and continuity, delivered through research, skills, partnership, and long term stewardship, with $7 million aimed squarely at turning urgency into workable action.