Georadar Techniques in the historical and architectonical field: the case study of the sanctuary of Madonna in Campagna in Guanzate (CO)

Abstract

The artistic and architectonic heritage on the Italian territory is huge. The uniqueness of the goods, their variety and the historical mean are often related to their age and to the environment in which their are located. From this point of view, both historical and architectonic and archeological studies, especially involving churches and religious buildings in general are often aimed at evaluating the architectonic development of the buildings during the centuries, looking for pieces or elements of the previous buildings or part of their structure (floor, graves, walls, etc.). To support historical considerations, could be indispensable to investigate the "dark side" of a building, i.e. to detect the occurrance of caves, underground archeological elements or structures like wall foundations. The Georadar or GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) system is the most advanced non-invasive technique aimed at searching underground elements and structures, and it can be widely used in the historical and archeological field. This technique allows to get detailed plans including information about the location, depth and size of the objects, goods or rests of them, making it possible, crossing information coming from the existing plans and the historical, historiographic and archivistic data, to rebuild plans of already forgotten buried structures, helping experts to rearrange the oldest events of Madonna in Campagna in Guanzate is presented, and these techniques have allowed supporting very complex hypotheses about the modifications of the religious building during the centuries; theories which up to now didn't have enough support from the available historical documentation.