Religious buildings in Ortahisar (turkey).the Survey of the complex of Saklı and Ali Torun kilise. Hypogea 2015 - Proceedings of International Congress of Speleology in Artificial Cavities

The work here presented was organized by the unit DIDA (Department of Architecture, UNIFI, Florence). The unit has a significant long experience in the field of research and action on the rupestrian architecture. This work is the prosecution of the previous experiences developed inside the European CHRIMA-cinp Project (Cultural Rupestrian Heritage in the Circum Mediterranean Area Common Identity, New Perspective) completed in 2012 and take part in the PRIN 2010-2011(Italian National Project Relevance). The PRIN project was approved in 2013 in the Italian Education, University and Research Ministry, by triennial project takes to heart the study, investigation and documentation of these rupestrian monuments with a project called “Rupestrian art and habitat in Cappadocia (Turkey) and in central and southern Italy. Rock, excavated architecture, painting: between knowledge, preservation and enhancement”. The research contributes to the promotion of a common cultural area, the development of cooperation between the creators, operators and cultural institutions. It also promotes interest in the rediscovery of the rock villages that characterize many countries in Europe and the Mediterranean, the memory of very interesting layers of tangible and intangible assets which risk to be compromised or destroyed permanently. The project aims to improve knowledge of the village in question, Ortahisar, for a deeper understanding of civil and religious functions, alongside the parallel studies carried out in the territory of Cappadocia in collaboration with other researchers. Within this work, the proper documentation, the digital survey and photography, together with other research methods, are the fundamental basis for the understanding, conservation and enhancement of the anthropic environment. The current report takes up the interest on the city of Ortahisar, the focus of Chrima-cinp, considered one of the significant centers of Cappadocia and still poorly studied. The goal is to achieve a thorough study of all the architectural sights in this area, but from a consolidated research, in indissoluble union between the natural landscape, urban planning, monuments and decorative art. For this particular article, we focused on survey, study and description of two churches aniconic as examples of the earliest forms of aggregation of the district.