Survey of the State of Conservation of the Monastery of Sant Miquel d’Escornalbou in Tarragona (Spain) through Digital, Analytical and IR Techniques

The IRT survey is one of the most widely used techniques to monitor buildings, manufacts, masonry, and cultural heritage in general. In this contribution, this technique is applied to the Monastery of Sant Miquel d’Escornalbou (Tarragona, Spain). The monumental complex has undergone to architectural transformations over the centuries, and the functionality of this place is closely linked to the domination of the territory, Vatican schemes and industrial, political and military interests. Today, the state of the art of the monastery represents a challenge in the conservation field because of the natural decay of the original parts and the prolonged absence of maintenance works. The present work aims to investigate the historical-constructive events of the monastic complex through historical sources and digital surveys useful to understand the main architectural-structural problems necessary for a possible conservative intervention. At this first stage, recognition using Non-Destructive Techniques (NDTs) based on imaging systems such as a combination of IR thermography, photogrammetric surveys and visual inspection is preferable. According to these techniques, it is possible to discover not only degradation phenomena like: structural defects, biodegradation, air cavities, raising dampness phenomena, water infiltration, but also a stratigraphic documentation of the monastic complex. The synergy of the imaging techniques allows the reading of the construction phases of the monastery and guide subsequent analytical studies useful to identify the nature of the local stone used for the construction of the buiding.