Andrea SICHI / Carolina ROSINI
(Università di Firenze, Italy)
Abstract:
The research aims to complete the store of knowledge on a monument of nearly a thousand years through the study and interpretation of ancient technological devices that have generated formal and unique characteristics. The absence of documents that has shrouded in mystery the evolutive history of the best preserved in Europe hosting complex along the Via Francigena has been bypassed by the research, which carried out to disclose the Templar’s symbolism on one side and the oblivion of time from another.
The object of the research is the small and elegant Romanesque church located in that complex.
The search method based on direct observation, the direct survey of technological and structural devices, punctual measurements aimed at verifying the hypothesis and the reconstruction carried out in the field and not a reworking of data in post-production were distinctive characteristics of the study.
We have achieved original and high contribution to knowledge results. In particular: the decoding of the construction technique of the three cruises freestanding brick vault, unique in its kind as the result of handicraft manufacturers and therefore not categorized according to general patterns textbook; formal interpretation of a singular and unique denticular monofora that has so far left unsatisfied curiosity of scientists; detection of the method for tracing the monument and the proportional relationships used to its location in relation to the existing context; the explanation of the peculiar and irregular orientation of the church; assumptions about the likely dating of the monument, so far uncertain because of the lack of documents.
These results were then allowed to fill those gaps that the studies conducted to date on the monument they left. The research therefore assumes the character of a true discovery and is configured as a valuable reference for similar studies.
Keywords: Templar symbolism, constusction tecniques, virtual simulation