The St. Eustache and the Meryemana churches in Göreme. Two case studies of documentation about rupestrian heritage in Cappadocia, technical approach from the digital survey to the restoration hypothesis

Abstract — The rupestrian settlements in Cappadocia are well known for their richness and very articulated shapes, but, at the same time, they are a clear sample of Patrimony at risk, the assets of Cappadocia today appears intended for a broad loss, in certain parts the rupestrian monuments are well preserved, in other parts they are abandoned or overloaded by admiring tourists, this whole patrimony appears only partially preservable, and therefore it is even more exceptional in its very late phase. Most of the rupestrian churches in Cappadocia has mural paintings which survived to centuries of improper usages and abandon, environmental menaces, vandals, some of these churches are quite simple but others are connected to very complex architectural systems and they still represent the meaning of that places at the time of their construction. This research it’s part of the result of the 2012 campaign of the Tuscia University research mission “Rock painting in Cappadocia. For a project of knowledge, conservation and enhancement” 2012 and of an actual PRIN (Italian National Relevance Research Projects), this paper it’s aimed to two very meaningful examples of these rupestrian conditions, the St. Eustache church and the Meryemana church, both located in the Göreme area, out of the Open Air Museum, they are two interesting cases testifying the specific condition of this patrimony for which a documentation, investigation, preservation and valorization project is under development. The first “on the field” common activities between the UNIFI and UNITUS units took place in the large area at the back of the Tokalı Kilise, starting from the front of this meaningful monument. In this first meaningful collaboration the creation of 3D digital models, starting from an accurate digital survey, is aimed to display the paintings in the excavated churches that host them, allowing a deeper and clearer knowledge of the rupestrian habitat in all its components. It will be also very useful for the realization of innovative instruments of fruition, suitable for a presentation of the rock monuments and pictorial decorations, in a scientifically correct way and diversified according to different communication levels: virtual reality installations and other multimedia products for the visitors of the Open Air Museum. In the case of the St. Eustache the mix of tunnels and the presence of a rich mural paintings in the main church room shows the particular approach to architecture combining security needs and faith. In the Meryemana church the special qualities of a small space are amplified by the risk of total destruction caused by a crack which is separating the church in two parts and is menacing the falling of the whole church in the 25 meters void beneath it. In both the cases the use of 3D digital survey is applied to produce multi-function models, oriented to various tasks, from the investigation, to the analysis, to the multimedia dissemination (applying specific data treatment optimized for the rupestrian subjects), to the hypothesis about mural paintings and architecture restorations and ending in some proposals about the access solution thanks to the production of physical models starting from the digital ones. The multimedia and the versatile models were not the end of the development of these digital models. Both of the churches are hard to reach and especially the Meryemana is afflicted by a high risk of loss. So, starting from the versatile models, and editing its features, it was possible to prepare a specific 3D digital model aimed to the prototyping and to the 3D prints procedures. In this way, working with an 1:1 representation scale, the resulting model is theoretically capable to be used to create a physical replica of the original churches in other materials. Something like the solution seen for the Altamira caves replicas in Spain? Probably this is the most interesting and direct solution to allow a full access to monuments like the Meryemana, even if a more articulated museum solution should produce better learning effects. But at the time of writing at least a complete metric documentation and a good starting point for their analysis and recovering has been created.