The complex of S. Eustachius in Göreme, Cappadocia reading the relationship between the landscape and a very articulated underground settlement

Abstract: The settlement of the St. Eustachius church is excavated in the volcanic stones in the back part of the Tokalı church. The latter is a second monument is a very well-known rupestrian church in the Cappadocia area, but the structure of the whole settlement in which the Tokalı is inserted it’s still subject of studies and hypothesis. So the St. Eustachius church, with its small room, covered with a vault enriched by a beautiful mural painting, its sepultures and its very articulated system of secondary rooms and tunnels, creates a rich and very challenging subject for the scholar and the surveyor. In fact the St. Eustachius settlement is carved in the peaks closing the plateau over the back of the Tokalı, because of its higher level it looks directly toward the Uçhisar Castle, placed at a linear distance of four kilometers, creating all the conditions to communicate with this important outpost using visual signals. In the remains of its tunnels, crossing the stone from the plateau to the rear “sword valley” there is the possibility to read the defensive system of the people from that time, where the church, the houses, the farms were working together to guaranty the security to its inhabitants. The digital survey, done using phase shift laser scanner all along the tunnels and all around the stones along the plateau and the “valley of the swords” has created the first complete and detailed documentation of this settlement, allowing the first in deep studies about this meaningful Church.