46. Historical Archive of the City of Cologne Collapse, Germany
Built: 1408
Collapsed: 2009
Est. Damages: $1.36 billion repair cost*
The Historical Archive of Cologne, located in Cologne, Germany, is one of Europe’s largest communal archives, and it has been around since the early 1400s. The oldest document in the Archives is a charter from 922 A.D. The archive has records and documents from Cologne from the Middle ages onward, as well as a huge collection of manuscripts.
Historical Archive of the City of Cologne Collapse, Germany ©Vladimir Rys / Gettyimages.com
In 2009, the archive building fell. Prosecutors confirmed that a new railway line, constructed by Cologne Stadtbahn, was the cause of the collapse, which buried 90% of the archival records. The total damage from the collapse was $1.36 billion, in addition to the priceless historical items that were obliterated.