MITO, PIETRA, SPOLIA E STORIA, FRAMMENTI DI INDEFINITO DA COSTANTINOPOLI A ISTANBUL

"From spolia in se to spolia in re': What does the transformation underneath this sentence implies? !t is a transition from a simple building stone, an element originally used fora specific purpose, to a stone that after being cut and used in a built structure is removed for being used elsewhere. This "survival of the ancient" c an be seen from two di./ferent perspectives, o ne purely pragmatic: the reuse of the spolia as a usejùl element for a specific building, or on a more ideological level: the symbol of a glorious past witnessing values to be preserved. The reuse of the Ancient in the centre of the Roman Istanbul is a process that has left marks, clear but with an uncertain and open interpretation, traces rich in mythological depth but completely to be investigated in their architectural history. In the contribution proposed here, contemporary technologies of digitai survey, modeling and visualization for virtual!augmented reality will be used to investigate the protomes of Medusa located in the Basilica Cistern and formulate hypotheses about their formai and architectural changes.