CEMETERY OF CONCEPCION DEL URUGUAY Study of constructive pathologies Proposals for its enhancement

IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 471 (2019), 2019

Cáceres has been a World Heritage Site since 1986 and one of its most emblematic monuments is the Co-Cathedral Church of Santa María which is located within the walled city of Cáceres in the heart of its historic centre. The building was erected between the 15th and 16th centuries over an earlier Mudejar building. Although there are several studies about the church from a historical and architectural point of view, none of them have been dedicated to its pavement which contains one of the most important tombstone mosaics in Spain. It is a checkerboard of tombs executed progressively from XV century that occupies the totality of the three church naves from the start to the chevet. The present study initiates a precise dimensional analysis of tombstones paving the floor of the Co-cathedral Church of Santa María in Cáceres to catalogue them, establish the orientation of the dead buried under its granitic pavement and concretizing certain aspects of the architectural evolution of the temple. To carry out this study, advanced methods of photogrammetry and digitalization have been used in order to be precised and able to rebuild the lost and crucial information. When we mention the position, we do not refer only to the topographical one, interesting in itself by the relation that always existed between closeness to the altar and fortune, but also to the position of the person in the society that gave him burial. This social positon can be deduced by the artistic dimension of the shield carved on its tomb placed in one of the most complete heraldic groups of the Spanish Renaissance.

International Conference Built Heritage 2013- Monitoring Conservation Management. Edited by M. Boriani, G. Gabaglio, G. Gullotta, Politecnico di Milano, Centro per la Conservazione e Valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali, 2013

1. Heritage 3.0: from "build" to "cultural" one This paper summarizes the goals of a broader research project focused on management and conservation of cemeteries. These are special examples of cultural heritage, because of their double feature of "monument" and "memorial". Speaking about the goals doesn't means merely to tell the results in their bare evidence. It means match the outcomes of an applied research to general problems, in order to verify the methodology in its scientifi c approach, and the possibility to solve other problems related to the conservation of built heritage. Indeed the 'case study' emphasis how the same survey methodology of architecture may apply to a wider range of assets and it offers helpful tools in the preservation of the whole cultural heritage. The recent past has showed an increasing attention to the building heritage. Meanwhile we do remark the widening of what is worth to conserve. In the fi rst half of XXth century the focus was on monumental Architecture and Fine Arts that in Italy was a lot but not all. In the second half of the century, the architect's attention moved from the "building" to the "environment". On the one hand it was welcoming the concept that a monument is deeply related to its (urban) landscape, on the other hand the signifi cance of urban fabric. Following Muratori's teaching, the attention focused on urban architecture, even if none were monumental. "Downtown" recalls in whole Europe a background of historical building, by the old ages, but still in use and in value. People have something more than effi ciency or comfort of the contemporary spaces. Therefore urban and environment preservation are good business because of their great infl uence on tourism. Arts and crafts have increased their meaningfulness as witness elements of the past. Many cities and landscapes have this meaning, so the planning imposes to be careful to these signs. Eventually, the preservation doesn't concern only the monuments and original works of art, but also in the humanities expressed by common use objects. The last step was the acknowledgement of the social signifi cance of wider cultural heritage, which concerned immaterial values as well. Further preservation means the maintenance of both material and immaterial levels. This awareness stresses the signifi cance of any effort in order to keep a relation between the artefacts and their social meaning. Conservation depends not only on the masterpieces' repair; so nowadays we are aware that the building restoration is only one of the conservation tools. This means that is needed a management approach to the whole cultural heritage. Consequently it requires a deep knowledge of assets and relations. The architectural survey was the fi rst instruments of preservation. The resto-

To protect and treasure the genius loci means in fact embodying the essence in still new historical context. We can also say that a place history should be its "selffulfilment".

The cemetery of the royal family, who ruled Egypt from 1805 to 1952, is one of the masterpieces of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Historic Cairo. It is a complex building from massive stone masonry walls supporting hemis-pherical domes and is very rich with the marble decorative elements. Unfortunately , it suffers nowadays from serious cracking due to ongoing structural damage. Almost all the structural elements are cracked. Besides, the continuous rise in the groundwater table affects both its structural stability and aesthetics. A detailed inspection was carried out to identify and explain all the manifested damage by the structural elements of the cemetery. The differential settlement damage was found to be very noticeable in the form of many diagonal cracks that are active and threaten the overall stability of the cemetery. The construction history was investigated and found to have a clear effect on the noticed damage. Examination of the construction materials and deterioration products was carried out by inspecting representative samples of the stone, the marble, the mortar, the plaster and the salt. They were examined using different analysis techniques including the Polarized Microscope, the Stereo Microscope, the X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) provided with Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) unit. This examination helped in identifying the type of the used stone, the mortar components, the types of salts affecting the structure, and the deterioration manifested by the marble. It seems that the cemetery needs an urgent conservation project to stop the deterioration and keep it safe for the next generations.

The mortuary is the most neglected and ignored place in almost all the peripheral hospitals as well as medical colleges. It is not having even basic facilities for the departed souls, public and officials working there. It is a well known fact that from the overall expenditure of any hospital, a very minute share is spent on the autopsy facility; it being considered a necessary evil. Consequently, the overall environment in a mortuary is depressing and gloomy; this situation is further compounded by administrative apathy towards medico-legal work as a whole. Despite these setbacks, a ray of hope emerges from judicial judgments on this issue. Keeping in view these points along with judicially pushed compulsion on the authorities to streamline and improve mortuaries, we present a lay out for the ideal mortuary complex designed for medical colleges and peripheral hospitals.

2009

Cemeteries are heritage monuments. In fact, death constitutes an important matter for each individual’s social life; it is expressed by figuration and symbols, and according to religious beliefs, each culture develops forms and rituals closely related to each other. The anthropologists identify cultures by the treatment given to the corpses, in which many funereal artefacts and funerary outfits are involved. The high level of architecture formality of these monuments comes from the attention given to the material quality of the final residence, in which the memory is kept alive. Thus, each monument is very distinctive and the gravity given to the passage from life to death is a common feature, which explains the accuracy of the funeral gifts and symbols. Aiming to represent the city of the living on a transcendent level, together with the respect for the dead, cemeteries have always been related to hygienic matters too, with a neat division between the living city and the death one. Christianity used to bury inside or nearby churches, until the Illuminists imposed again burial sites outside the city walls, issuing new specific norms and standards, which are reflected in the urban drawing of modern settlements. All cemeteries represent the mutual identifying element of a society, and thus, all of them should be preserved as much as any other historical building. Their rehabilitation will also give great improvement to the urban environment. The main focus is on the structures functionality, including changes required to respect the new standards of work safety, which could contrast with the preservation of the building. The research work carried out in Parma and the Villetta cemetery itself, constitute a significant example on this matter. The Villetta (see box) is the largest burial site of the town, with several memorials, documenting the activity of the main local artists from the last two centuries. The general planning and the site choice date back to a debate of the previous century; the original drawings and essay are still available. The historic cemetery, actually requiring structural repairs and general rehabilitation, is like a condominium good, where private properties or rights, rented and perpetual allotments coexist: the Octagon contains more than 600 tombs and 400 family aedicules (see Carmen Nuzzo’s). Together with the chapels inside the two galleries and the monuments in the porch walls, there’s an overall of about 1.500 units, many of which are extremely valuable. Thus, the building may be considered a condominium, where public and private properties, rented and perpetual allotments coexist. Many interesting documents regarding the artefacts and the activities of local artists are still available in the archives. This documentation also deals with regulations, cessions and juridical state of the properties. The research project constitutes a specific type of survey plotting in urban scale architecture knowledge, becoming a useful example for any work of this kind. An enrichment of the existing work is possible, since GIS allows projections and editing future updates. The architectonic filing, supported by a quite exhaustive archive research, has been executed in 2005. Nowadays, after some years of study about different projects directly derived from that first one, it is possible to appreciate that experience for its relation with conservation policy, as first step to historical cemetery rehabilitaion. The compilation of this informative system in which have been collected all the information available about the monument, has had important effects on the successive governance projects about City Council cemeteries, beginning with management planning. In fact, this work improved in meaningful way the cognitive part before proceeding to the planning, especially related with the monuments protection, besides the ordinary management. The final goal of the filing job was to circumscribe the historic-monumental part of the biggest city cemetery and of all the other cemeteries of the City Council, before proceeding to the writing of a “Cemeteries planning” (called PCm), now required by law. The cataloguing has been therefore the starting point for a long term research that has already produced some effective issues, like the PCm (see Silvia Ombellini’s), and by now it is possible to foresee the next steps. These projects have also evidenced the possible economic incoming, with important profits for the conservation of the monument. The future connection to the registry office (cadastre) will moreover allow verify in a more effective way the presence of deceased of historical importance, which are part of the civic memory, and thus, it must be conserved as the monuments. This application regards also the development of a program for resources’ productive management. If cemeteries are the memorials of our civic heritage, the evidence of this experience is that knowledge is the first steps toward their conservation and rehabilitation. REFERENCES Ragon M., L’espace de la mort – Essai sur l’architecture, la decoration e l’urbanisme funéraires, Albin Michel, Paris, 1981 Colvin H., Architecture and the after-life, Yale University Press, New haven and London, 1991 A.A. V.V., Monumets de memoire, M.P.C.I.H., Paris, 1991 Bacino E., I Golfi del silenzio. Iconografie funerarie e cimiteri d’Italia, Firenze, 1991 Albisinni P., l disegno della memoria. Storia rilievo e analisi grafica dell’architettura funeraria del XIX secolo, Edizioni Kappa, Roma, 1995 Bertolaccini L., Città e cimiteri: dall’eredità medioevale alla codificazione ottocentesca, Edizioni Kappa, Roma, 2004 Mauro Felicori, a cura di, Gli spazi della memoria, Architettura dei cimiteri monumentali europei, Luca Sossella Editore, 2005

Journal of Global Initiatives, 2020

The purpose of this study was to document and define symbolic imagery found within the grounds of the Colon Cemetery in Havana, Cuba. Memorials erected to the dead use symbology to tell stories about the departed, giving us clues to the deceased’s values and philosophies, as well as their religion, ethnicity, social memberships, occupations, education, level of wealth, and thoughts on the afterlife (Keister, 2004). Using images of Colon Cemetery from a photographic documentary series, Havana: Behind the Facade, architectural and cemetery symbology was grouped into categories, researched for meaning, and sought for interpretations to reveal clues about Cuban culture and beliefs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In general, these symbols revealed that this society believed in religious fervor, an afterlife, and a merciful God. This study serves to guide anyone who wants to interpret cemetery symbology. It opens the door to future studies on specific Cuban families and tombs. Most importantly, it visually preserves the symbology found on architecture and monuments within Colon Cemetery.

Studies in Digital Heritage, 2020

The Archaeology of Death, a line emerged within the processualist theoretical position, meant great advances in issues related to the study of the funeral ancient practices, mainly through anthropological studies. However, we do not always have deposits or primary contexts, usually we find the graves looted, pillaged or modified since ancient times. In this sense, this work intends to constitute a methodological example of approach to the knowledge of the funerary sphere of a society through the application of new technologies for those cases in which we do not have any type of information referred to both the biological subjects and the grave goods that accompanied them. The study case chosen is the necropolis of Cala Morell (Ciutadella), a set of several hypogea or artificial caves with different structural characteristics that seem to be framed in the middle of the first millennium BCE but whose exact chronology we cannot determine with accuracy due to the constant plundering and reuses to which the necropolis was exposed. The goals of our research try to determine if there are socioeconomic differences within the same necropolis, if we can talk about a certain structural pattern and if the results obtained can be extrapolated to the rest of the Menorcan necropolis. The technical methodology used in this research consists in developing a quality graphic documentation using photogrammetric models, the management of a database that includes the structural characteristics of each one of the funeral units treated and, finally, the statistical analysis to infer spatial or socioeconomic issues.

Bagh-e Nazar, 2019

Problem Statement: As everlasting places, cemeteries have the same history as the cities they are located. Historical cemeteries acts as collective memory of the society and represent the identity of their primitive participants. Although academic researchers and experts emphasis on different values lied in the burial landscapes and their important role in the society, there is no precise definition for the concept of historical cemeteries. This issue, added to other factors, like various attitudes of modernity facing the concept of life and death, destructive interventions and inappropriate urban legislations, rapid development of urban areas, modern vandalism and the passive approach of relative sciences like urban planning & management and conservation etc. caused historical cemeteries to face different perturbation. Aims: Emphasizing on the importance of historic cemeteries as a principal component of human settlements, the present study tries to give an appropriate answer to these questions: What is the definition of a Historic Cemetery? Which elements are important in the formation process of these historical sites? Research Method: Using hermeneutical approach to read the cemetery as a text, this research uses the Grounded Theory (GT) methodology (Open Coding, axial Coding & Selective Coding) to analyze the environmental data gathered from four case studies in Tehran (Ibn Babawayh, Emamzadeh Abdullah, Dulab Armenian Cemetery & Zahir-ol-Doleh). Conclusion: Iran historic cemeteries are formed by six main components (context, urban fabric, socio-cultural factors, history, physical ingredients and landscape) and can be classified in two categories (Internal & External Paradigm). A data-based theory shows that historical cemeteries are, in fact, cultural landscapes. By definition, these cemeteries consist of sets dating back more than 100 years and having a designated area. The obvious characteristic of such a landscape is a fundamental connection between its internal layers with the surrounding context that is a combination of natural and manufactured elements itself. Enriched by monuments, sculptures and abstract motives, these places have different religious, socio-cultural & monumental aspects and are respected by various groups of the society (local, township, regional & country). Iranian historical cemeteries express a fundamental relation between urban landscape, historical factors, human organization power and undeniable role of water and plants, enriching the existing fabrics through architectural and artistic concepts. Presence of symbols and mythical believes, as well as architectural monuments and historic events occurred in such places, bring a new essence into the burial fields that is both culturally and historically prosperous. By adding a ‘historical’ adjective to cemetery, this could be a subject of a specified discipline entitled ‘the Eco-historical environments’ that needs to provide an appropriate platform to guarantee the constant life of cemeteries as collective memorials of the cities.