Limoges, a picturesque city in South-Central France known for its medieval quarters, Gothic architecture and world-famous porcelain tradition, bore the brunt of rioters on Saturday. Arsonists set fire to its ornate 19th-century neo-Renaissance Town Hall, the Hôtel de Ville, and within minutes, 143 years of history was extensively damaged. The building had survived both World Wars. Its loss is a grim reminder that heritage, once burned, cannot be genuinely replaced. The Hôtel de Ville was never just an office block. In May 1940 it welcomed Belgian ministers and parliamentarians who had fled after King Leopold III’s surrender, and Belgian flags flew beside French ones. Under the German occupation it became a centre of Resistance activity, where staff sabotaged lists of Jewish residents, forged documents and hid weapons. General Charles de Gaulle visited in March 1945. Crowds have gone for it before, as well but it had surived. In April 1871, inspired by the Paris Commune, revolutionary guardsmen stormed the building and the prefecture and demanded a commune of their own. Porcelain workers’ strikes also turned violent in 1905, when a factory was wrecked and a prison attacked. This time, rioters stormed the building amid the student protests and threw firebombs inside. History has often been collateral damage when crowds turn on the state. From Paris to Cairo to Kathmandu, here are the buildings and collections lost to unrest.