Abstract
The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem is one of the most important religious sites of Christianity. It dates back to 326AD, when Emperor Constantine I ordered the construction of a basilica incorporating the Tomb of Christ within an Aedicule, and the hill of Golgotha. The Aedicule has undergone many reconstruction phases and restoration interventions, while sustaining many damages throughout its rich history. Recently, a project regarding conservation, reinforcement and repair interventions for the rehabilitation of the Holy Aedicule was successfully implemented. As part of this rehabilitation Works, ground penetrating radar (GPR) was employed for the survey of the Holy Aedicule to reveal the internal structural layers of the structure. Information from historical documentation and architectural analysis were correlated with findings from GPR prospection. This transdisciplinary approach allowed the elucidation of the structural evolution of the Aedicule. It revealed remnants of the original living rock of the 4th century Aedicule, surrounded by type of masonry dating to the Byzantine period, to the Crusader period and to 19th century major reconstructions. In addition, GPR and architectural analysis of the Aedicule’s structure revealed remnants of characteristic features of the 11th century Aedicule and large structural parts of the previous Aedicule below the height level of these two Domes.
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Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge the leaders of the Christian communities: His Beatitude the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III; His Paternity Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who was the Custos of the Holy Land until May 2016 and is now the Apostolic Administrator of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem; Father Francesco Patton, who has been Custos of the Holy Land since June 2016; and His Beatitude the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem Nourhan Manougian. Contributions from all over the world secured the project’s funding. Worth noting Mica Ertegun’s and Jack Shear’s donations through World Monuments Fund, Aegean Airlines et al. The interdisciplinary NTUA team for the Protection of Monuments, Em. Korres, A. Georgopoulos, A. Moropoulou, C. Spyrakos, Ch. Mouzakis, were responsible for the rehabilitation project and A. Moropoulou, as Chief Scientific Supervisor of the project, was responsible for its scientific supervision. Acknowledgements are also attributed to the members of the Holy Sepulchre Common Technical Bureau: Th. Mitropoulos, Ph.D., the director of the Common Technical Bureau and construction site manager; O. Hamdan; C. Benelli; and I. Badalian.
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Lampropoulos, K.C., Korres, M., Moropoulou, A. (2019). A Transdisciplinary Approach to Reveal the Structural Evolution of the Holy Aedicule in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. In: Osman, A., Moropoulou, A. (eds) Nondestructive Evaluation and Monitoring Technologies, Documentation, Diagnosis and Preservation of Cultural Heritage. Springer Proceedings in Materials. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25763-7_8
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