Geomatic techniques and 3D modeling for the survey of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

The Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City is an architectural complex consisting of several different structures mainly built between the first century and the Age of the Crusaders. In the past two centuries a fire and an earthquake have damaged the Church. These events and the restoration work consequently undertaken define the current state of the building. In the Basilica, visited by large numbers of pilgrims, various religious communities still coexist. For the CABeC (University Centre for Cultural Heritage, Director Prof. P.G. Malesani) of the University of Florence the need to assess the effects of further seismic action has been an opportunity to undertake a major project aimed at understanding and preserving the Basilica. The main precondition for the effective progress of the investigations is the reliability and completeness of data related to the geometry of the monument. The most innovative methodologies and instruments have been used the to document the state of the building: the joint use of GPS, total stations, photogrammetry and three-dimensional scans reach a real "integrated metric survey". This paper focuses only on the data acquisition, carried out in three main campaigns between 2007 and 2008. Forthcoming publications will illustrate further elaborations, 2D and 3D graphical products.