Les voltes de rajola doblada. Construcció i seguretat estructural de les esglésies barroques catalanes
- Autores: Anna Feu Jordana
- Directores de la Tesis: José Luis González Moreno-Navarro (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2017
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Arturo Zaragozá Catalán (presid.), Belén Onecha Pérez (secret.), Manuel Fortea Luna (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Tecnología de la Arquitectura, de la Edificación y del Urbanismo por la Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya
- Materias:
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- Resumen
The sheer number of religious monuments existing in Catalunya makes it difficult to maintain their well kept condition, and often proposals to repair damage, or to reverse the poor condition of these buildings are very expensive. In addition, the scarcity of funding from Government bodies and religious entities results in such works being unviable for cost reasons, leaving those buildings in continuing to deteriorate. This situation becomes more severe for baroque churches, where the use of vaults and folded tiled domes (catalan vaults and domes) is not understood, nor their construction methodology and structural behaviour. As a consequence, the conservation of these vaults and domes and the monumental integrity of the temples are endangered, and unnecessary demolitions or oversized repairs often take place.
During the century XVIII in Catalonia, a large number of churches were built and several roman and gothic temples were refurbished. In the areas of Lleida and Tarragona, as a result of the rise of populations dedicated to the production and commerce of grappa (an alcoholic spirit) and oil, monumental churches were built, whose design was even exported to the New World.
How was the construction of these temples (known by some historians as `Cathedrals of the oil¿ or `Cathedrals of the Wine¿) by their people, with such a lack of resourses, possible? How were the baroque Catalan churches built with a tile vault? What was the material and construction methods chosen? Why was it that only in the area of Lleida and Tarragona these hall-type churches appeared? Could it be claimed that churches from XVIII century were always built with catalan vaults? What type of geometry was adopted by master builders to build those vaults? How did they ensure the stability of the slender ribs which form those vaults? Did the geometry play a key role to ensure its effectiveness? How was the shape and thickness decided in a secure manner? Was the catalan vault the enabler to build rural temples of monumental dimensions? How did the builders who did not have a wide technical knowledge cover temples with those vaults? How did they sense the stability of the structure? Was their experience based only on empirical methods, or were there also unspoken rules to ensure a good standard of design? How were the brackets adequately designed to absorb the thrust? And how were the thicknesses of the walls and pillars adequately designed? Did other elements, such as the roof, play a key role in the stability of the whole? Did the hall-type churches bring any advantages over the other types? Why did the use of hall-type methodology result in larger temples? How did master builders decide how to share the weights in order to guarantee the stability of the whole? Does the detatchment of a tile or part of the plaster endanger the structural integrity of the temples? To what extent do the vault¿s deflections and the settlement of walls endanger the structural integrity of a temple? Are those vaults safe despite their deflections? Are the settled walls and columns endangering the safety of the vaults? Do cracks reveal an imminent collapse? Could the causes behind this deterioration be determined and is it possible to undo the damage? To be able to answer these questions it is necessary to deepen our knowledge of the construction and the structural behaviour of these churches, in order to adequately evaluat their safeguarding. This thesis aims to clarify how the XVIII century churches were built, how they behave structurally and how their stability was achieved; through the review of historic articles, analysis of field research data from research field, structural analysis and the study of deterioration.
