Indagini diagnostiche sulla basilica di S. Lorenzo in Lucina a Roma. Nuove evidenze sulle fasi costruttive e sullo stato di conservazione dei materiali

Marked by a complex layering that originated from the arrangement during Early Christianity and later composed of transformations in the medieval, renaissance, and baroque periods until the interventions between the 19th and 20th centuries, the basilica of S. Lorenzo in Lucina in Rome was the object of a recent campaign of diagnostic surveys aimed at analyzing in greater depth the knowledge relating to its construction phases and its conservation conditions. This article documents the analyses performed on certain significant elements of pertinence to the early christian basilica and to medieval phases of transformation of the areas located in the subterranean levels and in the presbytery area of the upper basilica. The morphological analysis of the settings and a careful assessment of their conservation conditions that had been strongly altered by a constant presence of hu midity allowed an articulated plan of scientific surveys to be designed. The production of a three-dimensional digital relief allowed the relationship between the underground structures, the crypt, and the upper apse area to be clarified, thereby providing a unitary and articulate reading of the building; the multi-analytical diagnostic approach, by integrating morphological observations, thermo-hygrometric measurements, and chemical/physical analyses, allowed an updated knowledge framework, of use for guiding future strategies of monitoring and conservative intervention on the monument, to be defined.