FYI. We just posted the announcement. You are welcome to share locally with your press contacts (especially the countries on the first places!)

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This press release is also available online here: https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Winners_Announced_in_Wor...

Winners Announced in World’s Largest Photo Contest: Wiki Loves Monuments

*International jury selects top 10 photos from more than 321,000 worldwide. Over the four past years, more than 1.1 million images have been submitted to the contest.*

The international jury for Wiki Loves Monuments 2014 http://www.wikilovesmonuments.org/ announced today the 10 winning photographs from the world’s largest photo contest, which ran from September 1 - 30 this year. More than 9,000 photographers uploaded over 321,000 freely-licensed photographs of historic buildings, monuments and cultural heritage sites in 41 countries to Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page for use on Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects.

This year, the grand-prize winning photograph is an image of the Holy Mountains Monastery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Mountains_Lavra, a complex of architectural monuments of national significance in Sviatohirsk, Ukraine, taken by Konstantin Brizhnichenko https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Brizhnichenko. The first written mention of the monastery was in 1526. In 1624, the monastery was officially recognized as the Sviatohirsk Uspensky Monastery. Before World War I, the monastery was inhabited by approximately 600 monks. During the 1930s, it was destroyed by the Soviets, along with other numerous religious sites throughout the Soviet Union. Today, the monastery community consists of more than 100 people, a number that increases each year.

(Photo link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svjatogorsk,_Lavra_3.jpg)

The winner will receive flight and accommodations in Mexico to attend Wikimania, the international conference of the Wikimedia movement, to be held in July 2015 in Mexico City.

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Wiki Loves Monuments is the world’s largest public photo competition. In it, people are asked to take pictures of monuments from participating countries and to upload them to Wikimedia Commons, enabling the photos to be used to illustrate Wikipedia in articles about these monuments and other subjects.

“With over one million free images of heritage sites across the world, Wiki Loves Monuments is one of the world’s most important history projects today,” says Deror Lin, the international coordinator of the competition. “Year after year, volunteers document hundreds of thousands of heritage sites across the world and upload the images to the internet under a free license for the benefit of the current andnext generations. These people display the splendor of creativity and culture in their countries.”

The competition is organized in 41 participating countries, each focusing on their national monuments and with their own national prizes. This year, every participating country submitted 10 nominations to the international jury who chose the winning pictures for the competition. A number of countries participated in the competition for the first time, including: Albania, Kosovo, Iraq, Ireland, Lebanon, Macedonia, Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority.

The contest was first organized in 2010 in the Netherlands and resulted in more than 12,500 pictures of Dutch monuments. Over the past four years more than 1.1 million images have been submitted to the contest.

*2014 Wiki Loves Monuments Winners:*

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1st Place - the Holy Mountains Monastery, Sviatohirsk, Ukraine by Konstantin Brizhnichenko - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Svjatogorsk,_Lavra_3.jpg

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2nd Place - Gare du Nord in Paris, France, by MrsEllacott (his image ranked 7thin the French national competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gare_du_Nord_December_2013.jpg -

3rd Place - Jøvik and Great Cormorants near Ullsfjorden, Troms, Tromsø, Norway by Siri Uldal (7th place in Norway’s national competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:J%C3%B8vik_handelssted_04.jpg

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4th Place - Alte Sennalpe Batzen (literally: Old Dairy Mountain Pasture Batzen) at Bregenzer Forest in Schröcken, Vorarlberg, Austria by Böhringer Friedrich (9th Place in the Austrian national competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alte_Batzenalpe_2014_Interior_06.jpg

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5th Place - Montfort Castle at Sunrise, Israel, by Eran Feldman (1st Place in the Israeli national competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%D7%9E%D7%91%D7%A6%D7%A8_%D7%9E%D7%9...

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6th Place - St Michael’s Mount, Marazion, Cornwall, UK by Fuzzypiggy (1st Place in the UK competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_Michael%27s_Mount_II5302_x_2982.j...

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7th Place - Tower Bridge at Dawn, UK by Fuzzypiggy (3rd Place in the UK competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tower_Bridge_at_Dawn.jpg

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8th Place - Victorian Valves at Victoria Baths, Manchester, UK by: RevDave (8th Place in the UK competition) - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victorian_Valves.jpg -

9th Place - Interior of the Romea Theatre, Murcia, Spain by: Pedro J Pacheco - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Teatro_Romea_Interior.jpg

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10 Place - View of the Interior of St. Peter's Church, Teruel, Spain. by: Diego Delso - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iglesia_de_San_Pedro,_Teruel,_Espa%C...

*For more information: *

*Itzik Edri, Spokesperson for the international jury - +972-54-5878078 <%2B972-54-5878078>, itzik@wikimedia.org.il itzik@wikimedia.org.il*