In this article we consider ancient buildings and structures that have historical and cultural value and require not only preservation, but also competent promotion. A significant part of such promotion is the presentation of the object. Light plays an important role in this process; it can both highlight the unique features of a building and completely eliminate them, especially when we work with architectural and archaeological heritage. Architectural objects initially, during their creation, assumed that natural lighting was taken into account when perceiving the object. Light allows one to perceive the plasticity of facades, emphasizes individual details, and participates in the formation of the image of a building. In the field of using artificial lighting of architectural monuments and entire ensembles, certain experience has already been gained both in foreign countries and in Ukraine. As for architectural and archaeological objects, there are many problems here, and they are not covered in the specialized literature. This is due both to the location of the monuments themselves and to the lack of proper attention to them from specialists. Exceptions are objects located in the structure of an architectural ensemble or simply in the center of urban development. Then they have their own illumination, but it is not always carefully thought out and takes into account their specific perception. The work defines the basic principles of working with such objects. The basis was taken from the experience of creating artificial lighting for architectural monuments, and an attempt was made to rethink and adapt it for architectural objects preserved in a ruined state.