Survey and Analysis of the current State of Preservation

On account of logistical problems arising from the impossibility of erecting adequate scaffolding that would allow for an inspection of the building's upper, and therefore inaccessible, elevations, a movable scaffold tower was employed to carry out a direct inspection of the stone built portions of the temple's four external elevations. The drawings/plans of the building produced in this way were then mounted, and subsequently integrated with already existing ichonographical documentation of the entire monumental complex. In this way it was possible to arrive at a reliable graphic representation of the structure which could be referred to during successive analytical phases of the project. Contemporaneously, a comprehensive photographic record of the building was created; this was realised on the one hand to illustrate the figurative and spatial characteristics of the monument as a whole, including details of the same (i.e. architectonic images), and on the other to furnish technical backup for the execution of a graphical survey of the building, and to aid the study of its physical characteristics and any degradation phenomena observed. The word 'survey' is widely understood to mean the two clearly identifiable and successive steps involved in the examination of a structure, these being the actual surveying procedure, followed by the graphic rendering that describes and represents the building by means of eminently clear diagrams. The term 'survey' as used here refers to a thorough and systematic investigation carried out in the field, contemporaneous with the immediate, precise and effective rendering on paper and/or in computerized form of the data collected. This method allows for an accurate and reliable investigation to be carried out of the building and all its individual components, and the relationship between these parts. In addition, it provides a firm base and support for checks that may be performed in the future, and any thorough assessment regarding the building's architectural and structural configuration. Based on the survey drawings, the next step performed was the sampling of the various forms of degradation observed, and the macroscopic mapping of these. Maps were made of the building's four elevations. To achieve this goal, effective graphic devices were used that could readily be overlaid, and which would allow for the specification, localization and circumscription of the various areas/types of deterioration, including the juxtaposition and intermingling of these. Finally, exclusively for the building's main elevation, a more accurate graphical rendering of the macroscopic degradation diagnosis was prepared, which was intended to serve as an example of an up-to-date, critical and specifically targeted application of the recent UNI 11 - 182/2006 norm. A further step, which benefited from a considerable body of photographic documentation of the various states of deterioration observed (showing their locations, brief descriptions of the same, and the identification of possible causes), was the creation of 'case history' to refer to in future in-depth scientific investigations. This will also be relevant for a sampling plan, non-destructive investigations, and tests to be carried out in a laboratory in order to gain greater and more precise understanding of the phenomena (sometimes very exact knowledge). These verifications are to be to correlated with the systematic 'reading' described above that consists in a macroscopic diagnosis, carried out by means of a very attentive visual scrutiny.