Believed to date back to a Mon settlement of the first millennium CE, this ancient city was originally known as Muang Sua, but well before 1353 when it became the first capital of Lane Xang its name had changed to Xiang Dong Xiang Thong. When the royal court was transferred to Vientiane in 1560 its name was once more changed, this time to Luang Prabang in honour of the sacred pha bang Buddha image, then housed at Wat Wisun. Lane Xang later broke up into three kingdoms of Luang Prabang, Vientiane and Champassak, but of the three only Luang Prabang was destined to survive into the French colonial era and between 1946 and 1975 the King of Luang Prabang ruled as constitutional monarch of all the Lao territories. Since the early 1990s Luang Prabang city has attracted considerable interest for its unique and important fusion of indigenous and colonial architectural, leading to its inscription in 1995 on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Important structures include the colonial-era Royal Palace (now the Luang Prabang National Museum), numerous Buddhist temples (wats), colonial villas, a remarkable collection of mostly early 20th-century shophouses and many older wood and masonry private houses which demonstrate a variety of Lao traditional building forms, materials and construction techniques. There follows a list of some of the more important structures located within the protected area: