Architectural Monuments have to overcome the challenge of time due to physical properties. The fundamental issue must be grounded in an understanding of history and art to overcome this challenge and make them sustainable. Many efforts to preserve the monuments through the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century to record them in scientific form were successful. To be aware of the meaning of the art and not to be ‘barbare’ anymore was behind the promotion of these activities. Above all, the 19th-century French architect Viollet-le-Duc contrasted the concept of barbarism with the concept of art and tried to redefine architecture as art. The ritual to escape ‘barbare’ played an important role in the end. This consciousness was also at work in the propaganda for the preservation of medieval architectural monuments in France, led by intellectuals such as Rodin. Also, the concept of ‘barbare’ served as an important yardstick whenever the cause of their loss was questioned while important monuments were destroyed in the First World War. From the viewpoint of Germany, Dehio was the pioneer of the preservation movement and documentation of monuments. The principle he advocated was preservation, not restoration. The historian Pevsner, who moved to England, also surveyed monuments in various parts of England and left them in the same format as Dehio. These facts show that architecture as art plays a fundamental role in the history of human life.