Wat Phra Si Sanphet

“This monastery was the most important temple of Ayutthaya and [was] situated within the Grand Palace grounds. It served as a model for the Temple of the Emerald Buddha [Wat Phra Kaew] in Bangkok.” 

“[T]he temple was founded on the site of three earlier prasats built in the mid 14th century by King U-Thong, the sovereign who made Ayutthaya his capital. In 1448 the prasats were converted into phutthawat, transforming them into sacred territory. From then onward, the temple was used exclusively by the Ayutthayan kings (i.e., no monks resided in the temple).”

During the 1764-1767 Burmese invasion the temple suffered extensive destruction and the “famed Phra Si Sanphet Buddha statue that was once in the east viharn was melted down in the 1767 sack, with only its bronze core remaining”. “In the early twentieth century only the easternmost chedi was still standing. The rest were restored, but the two viharns have not been rebuilt.”

See Ayutthaya History - Wat Phra Si Sanphet and Asian Historical Architecture .