Geometric documentation and reconstruction of the church of the Monastery of San Prudencio (La Rioja, Spain)

Abstract

[EN]This diploma thesis is the result of a collaboration of two universities, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). It is part of the bigger project of the documentation of the Monastery of San Prudencio in the province of La Rioja in Spain, which is undertaken by professors and students of the University of the Basque Country and with the contribution of six universities of Europe (National Technical University of Athens, HafenCity University of Hamburg, Polytechnic University of Madrid, University of Studies of Siena, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University) as part of an ERASMUS educational Intensive Programme. This ERASMUS project aims to document the whole Monastery by all the adequate, in any case, methods with the long-term target to make the large history of the monument known to the habitants of the region and the rest of people and to be the background of the measurements that the government will take to protect it. As part of this project, this diploma thesis deals with the documentation of the church of the Monastery and its 3 dimensional virtual reconstruction. The documentation has been done with 3Dmodels and orthophotos. All of these methods were used to represent the whole church which consists of four walls the size of which is about 20 by 7.5 meters.

The 3D model as a step to make the orthophoto and also as a tool to represent the object was made with Photomodeler Scanner 6 and ImageMaster and was merged with the software Rapidform. The results that these two software gave us were evaluated and, at the end, the best parts of every software were used.

The orthophotos were created with ImageMaster and where it was necessary (more than one orthophoto for one wall), they were combined within AutoCAD. Moreover, for completing the project of the documentation of the whole church, another part of the work must be done at the NTUniversity of Athens. This is the documentation of the outside part of the church with the same methods that the inside part has been created.

Next part of this diploma thesis is the 3 dimensional virtual reconstruction of the church, something that is going to start at the NTUniversity of Athens, with the hope to be finished and presented by the end of February 2012. This reconstruction will be a representation of how the church was in the past according to historical sources that are available and with the close collaboration of archaeologists. The initial thought is that this 3Dimensional reconstruction will be created based on the 3 Dimensional models that already exist as part of this diploma thesis.

All the results will be sent, saved and ready for being used in the future by the six universities which participate at the ERASMUS Intensive Programme , hoping to be a useful tool for related projects and to be a part of the base on which actions of protection for the monument will be taken.

[ES] Este proyecto es el resultado de la colaboración de dos universidades: la Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU) y la National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). También forma parte de un proyecto de mayor envergadura que ha tenido lugar en el Monasterio de San Prudencio de Monte Laturce (Clavijo, La Rioja) que ha sido desarrollado por profesores y estudiantes de ambas universidades conjuntamente a la Univesidad Politécnica de Madrid, la HafenCity University of Hamburg, la Università degli Studi di Siena y la Vilnius Gediminas Technical University como parte de un programa intensivo ERASMUS. Dicho proyecto ERASMUS tiene como objetivo la documentación geométrica de las ruinas del conjunto monástico mediante las técnicas más adecuadas para cada situación como punto de partida para la difusión del conocimiento del monumento y, en una futura instancia, su protección y preservación.

Como parte de este proyecto, el trabajo fin de carrera se centra en la documentación de la iglesia del Monasterio (que ocupa una superficie de 20 x 7,5 metros) y su reconstrucción virtual. La documentación se ha realizado mediante modelos tridimensionales y ortofotografías. Se han utilizado dos aplicaciones informáticas de fotogrametría (Photomodeler e ImageMaster) combinando los mejores resultados para el producto final.

El trabajo se completará con el modelado virtual y reconstrucción de la iglesia, esta fase se realizará en la NTU de Atenas y tiene prevista su finalización en febrero de 2012. Los resultados serán puestos a disposición pública de las universidades participantes en el proyecto ERASMUS con la esperanza de que sean una herramienta útil para futuros proyectos de investigación y formen una base de conocimiento que ayude a la protección del monumento.