Barcelona – Inspection and Analysis of Historical Constructions

Sant Miquel del Port

BRIEF HISTORY

The church of Sant Miquel del Port was built between 1753 and 1755 by the architect Pedro Martín Cermeño. In 1863 the church was expanded in order to meet the needs of the rapidly increasing of local population. Till that time the church only had one floor because there was a restriction which said that buildings had to be low enough for cannon balls fired from the Citadel to fly over. It is for this reason that the upper floors were not build till late 1800s.

After that, the inside of the church has been renovated in 1912. Then, more recently, the statue of San Miguel has been rebuilt in 1992, after being destroyed during the Spanish civil war between 1936 and 1939, when the church was fired ruining the interior decoration.

SANT FRANCESC DE SALES

BRIEF HISTORY

The parish of Sant Miquel de Sales was placed in the new free spaces habilitated after the 19^thc. grid expansion of the city carried out by Ildefons Cerdá. The church is considered one of the finest Neo-Gothic structures in the city and it was designed by Joan Martorell I Montells, one of Gaudi’s teacher.

In 1874 the land was purchased on Passeig de Sant Joan and the construction began. The nuns were able to move into the monastery by 1878, but the church was not completed until 1885.

During the Tragic Week in 1909 and again during the Spanish Civil War in 1936 the nuns were forced to abandon the monastery and the church was sacked. In 1942 a new community took over the former convent and during that year there were undergoing some alterations in the building, but the most important was the demolition of the six small chapels and so, the church was turned into a structure of three naves.

In the sixties the monastery was turned into a public school. The church received just some minor changes on the outside during this period.

In the eighties the church went up on fire once more. Damage on the structural system was not visible. This time the main damage were the blacked walls and arcades. Because of that, the church got renovated in 1991.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The church is built in the Gothic Revival or also called Neo-Gothic style. Originally it was designed with one big nave and an additional 3 chapels on each side. The chapels were taken down in 1942 and nowadays the church has three naves which appear to one big nave. This makes the church to appear way more spacious. The inside is very typical for a Neo-Gothic church: arches, brick walls, wall paintings and religious statues characterize the interior.

On the outside there are three different materials visible: stone, brick work and pottery. The main tower of the church is placed above the entrance hall, surrounded with two smaller towers on its left and right side. The used materials of the church differ a lot compared to the surrounding buildings it can be easily seen that it is by far the oldest building in this area.

DIAGNOSIS

Summarized, we can say that the church is in a good shape, probably because there were constantly renovations happening and the last one was in the early 90´s and therefore not so long ago. Another good sign is that we can see that the church is taken care of because there are ongoing observations.

Most of the problems occur in the part of the church, where originally the six private chapels were located. Because of that, our first thought was that the causes behind those different problems could be the same. The cracks on the floor and on the arches are likely caused by soil settlement. Other problems like the moisture problem can have several causes like leaks in the roof or seasonal peaks of humidity in the church.

Santa Madrona

BRIEF HISTORY

The church Santa Madrona, situated in the neighborhood Poble Sec, Barcelona, was inaugurated on 24 May in 1888. It was designed by the architect Adriano Casademunt and constructed by master builder D. Francisco Riera. Due to the rapid development of that part of Eixample, the church was open before the bell tower was completed.

The main events that affected this construction were: the fire in July 1909 during the tragic week, which caused some damage to the main facade and the interior of the church. In 1923, the bell tower was constructed much taller than originally designed. Although, during the Spanish Civil War in 1936, the highest part of the bell tower was taken off to avoid being an easy target to bombers.

During this period, the church was again lit on fire. The benches and other furniture in the church were burnt and this caused formation of huge cracks in vaults, arches and the walls. During the occupation, the church was used as garage. An anti-raid bunker was constructed under the central nave. The entrance of this bunker was located in front of the main facade, while the exit was at the door of the apse. The construction of the bunker seriously damaged the foundations of the church and caused infiltration of water in the buildings located in the surrounding area. Consequently, in 1939-1940, an intervention to strengthen the foundations and to fill the bunker was performed.

In 1988 a new parish building was constructed and finally in 2014 the church was provided with new furniture and some superficial interventions were carried out.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The church has an eclectic style as it is a blend of Romanesque-Gothic style with Byzantine details. The floor-plan has a cross shape and the apse is oriented towards the West. The main facade presents pointed-arch doors and a 50 m tower. The church consists of a central nave of 11.6 m width, with a height of 18.5 m to the arches and 20 m in proximity to the dome. On each side of the central nave there are lateral naves, each one has four chapels with pointed arches. In the central nave there are pointed-arch windows which are closed by stained glass. The transept is crowned by an oval dome that reaches 32 m of height. The presbytery is risen several steps above the level of the temple. Six free columns and two embedded ones surround the presbytery, leading to seven symbolic compartments. All the columns of the temple are topped by stone capitals. The sacristy is located to the right of the apse, and the rectory is in a building annex to the church on the right side of the main facade of temple.

The building is supported by the outer walls and the inner pillars together with arches and vaults. The pillars are made of brick covered with plaster. The arches are made of bricks in rowlock position; the vaults are made of bricks in flat position. The lateral walls are made of plaster covered brick on the inner face and of stone with rows of bricks in the exterior. The main facade is made of Montjuïc sandstone blocks. How exactly the foundations were made is unknown.

Sagrada Familia – Nativity facade

BRIEF HISTORY

After undertaking the project, Gaudí finished the construction of the crypt in 1889, starting also at this time the construction of the walls of the apse, which were finished in 1894. The work on the foundations of the Nativity facade began in 1892. On November of 1925 the first tower was finished, with a total height of 98m. The construction of the rest of the towers was finally completed in 1930. The remaining parts, such as the cypress pinnacle and the lanterns of the Hope and Faith portals, were finished before the Civil War in 1935.

In October 2010, the tunnel-boring machine dug through the soil layers only 4m away from where the Sagrada Familia’s principal facades foundation lies. Since the opening of the high-speed line there has been no reported damage to the Sagrada Familia although this AVE line could be potentially impacting the structure foundations.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The starting point for the Sagrada Familia was Gothic architecture, which Gaudí modified and improved on to offer a new architecture which, due to its originality, makes this temple unique.

The Expiatory Temple of the Sagrada Familia is a church with a central nave flanked by four aisles, and transepts with a central nave flanked by two aisles, forming a Latin cross. The top of the cross is closed by the semi-circular apse. The basilica also has three monumental facades, each one representing one of the three crucial events of Christ’s existence: his birth (Marina Street, this is the facade we are studying); his Passion, Death and Resurrection (Sardenya Street); and his present and future Glory (Mallorca Street).

DAMAGE AND DIAGNOSIS

As reported in the literature, settlements during the construction of the facade can be the cause of the majority of the extensive cracks in the interior walls, which have been already repaired in most of the cases. Settlements due to the high-speed rail line construction can also be associated to the appearance of new cracks since, according to the technical reports, up to 22mm of settlement could be expected. The presence of remaining devices denotes a previous monitoring campaign, which corresponds to the studies for the high-speed rail line construction.

REFERENCES

[1] Stratton, P.M., The Sagrada Familia Church, in Builder1927: London, U.K. p. 198-200.

[2] Ginsberg, A., The letters of Allen Ginsberg, ed. B. Morgan. 2008: Da Capo Press. 408.

[3] Junta Constructora del Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família. http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/. [cited 2014 October 24, 2014]

[4] Menzinsky, A. http://sagradafamiliagaudi.com/. 2013.

[5] Jäger, W., et al. The monitoring of world heritage sites during construction works in their vicinity: the case of Casa Milà and of the Church of Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain. In Structural Studies, Repairs and Maintenance of Heritage Architecture XII. 2011. Tuscany, Italy.

[6] History of the temple: http://www.sagradafamilia.org/en/history-of-the-temple/ [cited 2016 November 22]

[7] Van der Boom, J., Tunelling in urban areas: the use of lateral walls to protect ancient buildings, in Enginyeria de Camins, Canals i Ports2011, Tecnical University of Catalonia: Barcelona, Spain

Santa Anna church

BRIEF HISTORY

The Holy Sepulcher Order settled in Barcelona in a church near to the Cathedral. Then in 1177, they built a new church placed where the present one is, the architect was Ramón Amadeu.

The church has had different names due to the changes of it denomination (collegiate church or parish) and also because of the changes in the Orders.

The church was reformed in 1835. Some years after, in 1873 the church was profaned by anti-religious groups as many other churches in Barcelona at that time. Because of this, it was closed to the public during some time.

In 1875 the surrounding areas where urbanized, in consequence, some of the constructions belonging the church where destroyed. But in 1881 it was named as a National Monument to avoid it demolition.

The dimensions of the church were not enough to admit all the public, so in 1887 they started the construction of a new and independent building. It was inaugurated in 1914 but it was not still finished.

The priest Ramón Balcells (1920-1936) was very active and he did some restorations in the church till he was murdered in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. He renewed some altars, and in the main one and in the exterior facades he put adobe where there had been other constructions annexed.

In 1936 the church was fired, both the old one and the new one (Neo-gothic part). Due to this event, the dome was destroyed and it is possible to observe the new cimborio made with bricks. The old church conserved the exterior walls despite the fire, but the new one was demolished in 1938.

REFERENCES

[1] J. M. Azcárate Ristori, “Monumentos españoles,” in Catálogo de los declarados histórico-artísticos, J. M. Azcárate Ristori, Ed. Madrid: CSIC, 1954, pp. 74–75.

[2] J. Ainaud, J. Gudiol, and F. P. Verrie, Catálogo monumental de España: la ciudad de Barcelona (vol. 2), 1st ed. Madrid: CSIC, 1947.

[3] J. Aran i Suriol, Santa Anna de Barcelona. Monestir, Colegiata, Parroquia. Barcelona: Editorial Mediterrània, 2002.

[4] A. A. Pi y Arimón, Barcelona antigua y moderna ó descripción e historia de esta ciudad desde su fundación hasta nuestros días. Barcelona: Imprenta y librería politécnica de Tomás Gorchs, 1854.

[5] A. Campany, La Iglesia de Santa Ana de Barcelona (Vol XVII). Barcelona: Liberia Francisco Puig, 1929.

[6] C. Flores and E. Amann, “La arquitectura de Barcelona,” Hogar y Arquitectura, Madrid, 1964.

[7] “Blog Parroquia de Santa Ana.” [Online]. Available: http://www.parroquiasantaanna.org/. [Accessed: 08-Jan-2015].

[8] J. Emili Hernández-Cros, G. Mora, and X. Pouplana, Arquitectura de Barcelona. Barcelona: Demarcació de Barcelona del Col·legi de Catalunya, 1990.

[9] B. Baldiri, “Monasterios de Cataluña,” 2016. [Online]. Available: http://www.monestirs.cat/monst/bcn/cbn02anna.htm. [Accessed: 14-Nov-2016].

Sant Felipe Neri Oratory

BRIEF HISTORY

The history of this building starts at the beginning of 1883. The 1^st June of that year, to commemorate the new Gracia’s Congregation, the construction of the chapel and de oratory started. It was not until January the 2^nd 1885 when the building was inaugurated.

For a few years the chapel fulfilled the objectives for which it had been designed but quickly they needed more space due to a greater number of the faithful. A parallel church to the initial chapel was made as an extension of the building. The works for this extension started in August 12^th 1891 and the inauguration was in 1901.

Eight years after, the last week of 1909, during the Tragic Week in Barcelona, the church was burned by a group of anarchists who assaulted the church. Because of this event, the building was completely destroyed except for the structural elements that were damaged by fire but remained standing. The reconstruction of the church was made in 1910.

At the beginning of the Spanish Civil War, in 1936, the church was reconverted into a military barracks.

Until 1965, the Oratory remained as it was after the Spanish Civil Postwar restoration, but that year it was decided to make an extension of 3 floors.

The last restoration in 1988 consisted in a new design of the main facade by the architect Josep Artigas i Ramoneda, who tried to reproduce the facade of Saint Felipe Neri Chucrch placed in Ciudat Vella.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The church can be classified as a new-baroque construction due to its similarity with the one in Ciutat Vella. The church is 39m long (direction parallel to Street Montseny) and 24m wide (parallel to Street Sol). The highest part – center of the dome - is approximately 21m high. The bell tower located in the corner of the church is 30m high and its dimensions on plan are 5.7x4 m².

The church has a rectangular shape with a Latin cross plan. It has three naves: the central one is the highest, segmented into four bays till the transept and it joints the naves with the semicircular apse.

The intersection of the central nave with the transept leads to a place covered by a vault. Both, the vaults of the central nave and the transept arms, are intersected by lunettes of parabolic section.

The building has a ground floor level and a top floor spanning the aisles, the choir and the dependences bordering the apse. The elements of communication between plants are in the bell tower and the staircase of the choir.

DAMAGE AND DIAGNOSIS

The combination of the visual inspection with the structural analysis led to the conclusion that the safety and stability of the church cannot be guaranteed.

The district of Gràcia is an area with has a deformable soil, as it is mainly constituted by gravel and sands. Due to the presence of such soil and the observation on the behavior of the cracks that crosses the main volts of the nave, it was assumed that the piers of the church are rotating. Hence, it was concluded that there was a process of soil settlement below the church.

In the bell tower, it can be seen several cracks with the same behavior. They are vertical, long but discontinuous. Such cracks may be caused by compressible forces acting on the walls of the bell tower.

The metallic trusses existing on the roof of the church were installed in the 1980s. These trusses have deformed and seem to damage the dome and the side walls that support it. Part of the truss is touching the extrados of the dome, probably causing some of the cracks that may be observed in the dome's intrados.

Felipe Neri Gracia D01

Felipe Neri Gracia D02

Felipe Neri Gracia D03

Felipe Neri Gracia D04

Felipe Neri Gracia D05

Felipe Neri Gracia D06

Felipe Neri Gracia D07

Felipe Neri Gracia D08

Felipe Neri Gracia D09

Felipe Neri Gracia D10

Felipe Neri Gracia D11

Felipe Neri Gracia D12

Felipe Neri Gracia D13

Felipe Neri Gracia D14

Sant Felipe Neri church

BRIEF HISTORY

This baroque style church was built in the first half of the 18^th century and it is a work of the architect Pere Bertran during the years 1721 and 1752. It was constructed on a Jewish and medieval cemetery of Montjuïc del Bisbe.

The facade of the church is disfigured because of the extensive aerial bombardment that took place in the city during the Spanish Civil War. This is attested by the plaque present in the square which commemorates the bombing that took place in the square on the 30^th of January 1938 to cause the collapse of the underground part of the church.

After that event, the architect Adolf Florensa was commanded to rebuild the place. He decided to enlarge the square and maintain the style of the houses.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The plan of the church forms a typical cross shape. The apse has a semicircular shape in plan. The central and lateral naves are separated by four columns. The church makes use of semicircular arches to create openings between the columns as well as to connect chapels in lateral nave. The main transept with pitched roof, which is tiled.

The lateral thrust from the three central vaults of the nave is resisted by three buttresses on the second level. The lateral thrust from the remaining arches is resisted either by the load-bearing wall, incorporated into the front facade, and by the walls at the intersection of nave with the transept. The columns are likely to be supported on isolated footings.

The main material of the structure is Montjuïc stone.

REFERENCES

[1] Feilden, B. “Conservation of Historic Buildings”, Architectural Press, 2003 (Third Edition).

[2] Jaltare, M., Sharma, S., Nyandak, T. “Report 4 – Identification of Damage and Alterations The Church of Sant Felip Neri”. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 2014

[3] Colectivo Paso a Paso, La canallad(da) de Sant Felip Neri, documentary, 2008

[4] Roca Fabregat, Pere. “Introduction”. Inspecion, Analysis and Restoration of Historical Constructions. Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d’Enginyeria de la Construcció

Ciutadella church

BRIEF HISTORY

The preset Military Parish Church is placed in the same terrains that the fort built by Felipe V to dominate the city after de Spanish Succession War in the XVIII century.

On September the 11^th of 1714, Barcelona fell into the hands of Felipe V’s army, who built this fortress to keep the city under control. The construction of the Citadel was ordered to the Flemish military engineer Joris Prosper Van Verboom. The works began on March 16^th of 1715.

It was turned into a hated symbol of the central government by the people of Barcelona, so finally, it was ordered to overthrow it in 1841, but two years later, during the regency of Maria Cristina de Borbon, it was again restored. General Prim decreed its donation to the city.

Finally, due to the Revolution in 1868, it started the demolition of the Citadel. From the original fort only remains: the chapel which we are studying, the governor's palace (currently the IES Verdaguer) and the arsenal, (now the current seat of Parliament Catalonia).

Investigations involving the church minister has revealed that the church is, and always has been, dealing with humidity. Only 10 years after its completion, the roof of the church was changed because of humidity problems. Furthermore, the church originally had small building extensions on either side of the back end of the church, in which the minister’s sacristy was located. These building extensions have since been demolished.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The church is symmetrical with one big dome and a tower on the south side. Along each side of the church there are four smaller domes, eight in total. The small domes are located along the long sides, and are each carried by three walls and an arch carried by columns. The big dome is carried by four arches on top of columns. In the back of the church, there is an apse, above which is the tower. The roof is built as a vault in the longitudinal direction.

The columns in the church are made of sandstone blocks, most likely brought to the structure from Montjuïc. Other structural parts, such as the domes and the vault are also made of sandstone. The rest of the church is built using normal bricks. The outer part of the church is covered in a layer of plaster, which is painted in pink, beige and grey depending on the location.

Sant Pau Hospital

BRIEF HISTORY

The present Hospital of the Saint Creu and Saint Pau is a complex built between 1901 and 1930, it was designed by the Catalan modernist architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. It was a fully functioning hospital until June 2009 when it changed its function to a museum and cultural center.

Lluís Domènech I Montaner designed the chapel as a ring road pavilion, this means that the facade separates directly the chapel from the street, so it is possible to access to the church from the outside without any contact with patients. The design that we can see today is not the original one, due to some changes made by Pere Domenech I Roura who leaded the construction (1923-1925) after his father’s death.

The first stone was placed in March the 11^th of 1923. But later, in March the 3^rd of 1924, his son, Pere Domenech i Roura, redesigned the pavilion of the church. His changes were very respectful to the original project, and practically he just reduced the decor, respecting its structure, volume and dimensions. The facades were more modest, but the modified project still had the majestic cimborio crowned with a dome surrounded by four towers. As we can observe today, this idea was never completed, although it exists a proof that the cimborio was started to be built because it exists five polygonal parts on the roof, which are nothing but the bases of the planned cimborio and towers. Unfortunately, at certain point, due to financial shortages, it was decided not to continue the construction and these incomplete bases were covered with roofs, each one with eight slopes. The only important change compared to the original project was the incorporation of the small pavilion of San Roque, a module attached to the wall and which closed the convent.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

In general, the structure is supported by load bearing walls in the perimeter plus rounded pillars made of bricks and masonry and steel frame in some parts.

The front part is the main entrance to the church. There are two lines of pillars that separate the central part. Each element is formed by four pillars; these pillars are supporting a vault with a pyramidal cover made of wood and ceramic. The use of wooden ceiling covers is really unusual in the hospital complex, but this is because originally, a much bigger dome was planned for the church. In fact, the drum-shape supporting walls of the wooden ceilings were made in order to be continued with the original dome.

The vaults are different in between each other, adapting to the different cases. In the ambulatory and in the chapel, the vaults have a span of 3-5m. The vaults from central nave have much bigger spans. The one in between the lateral entrances covers 9.6x9.6m².

Regarding the roof, in this sector it is made by metallic rolled sections and boards made of bricks supported by a second level of pointed arches. The geometry of the roofs is not simple because every part of the apse has a small pointed roof that joins with the main roof that covers the central area.

DAMAGES AND DIAGNOSIS

The monitoring of the crack in the main nave stopped 2 years ago so we can say that it is of an aesthetic nature, the situation is not concerning from a structural point of view.

It seems that the humidity present in the entire church caused corrosion and expansions of steel and in consequence it has created crack appearance. The position of the cracks corresponds well with the designed location of the steel bars from the original drawings.

The origin of the humidity could have two sources: problems with the drainage system or problems due to the geometric, the wet areas are the places where water can be accumulated-like the lower part of the apses.

REFERENCES

[1] P. Salmerón and M. Terreu, “El bloc de la història de l’Hospital de Santa Creu i Sant Pau,” 2016. [Online]. Available: http://desantacreuasantpau.blogspot.com.es/.

[2] L. Binda, M. Lualdi, A. Saisi, L. Zanzi, M. Gianinetto, and G. Roche, “NDT applied to the diagnosis of historic buildings: a case history,” Proc. 10th Int. Conf. Struct. Faults Repair, no. November 2016, pp. 1–3, 2003.

[3] J. L. González, A. Casals, A. Dotor, E. García, and B. Onecha, “A masonry tile dome restorarion in Catalonia,” in Construction History Society of America, 3rd Biennial Meeting, 2012, no. 2, pp. 649–651.

[4] Y. Endo and P. Roca, “STRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT OF THE MASONRY VAULTS OF A PAVILIONS OF HOSPITAL DE SANT PAU IN BARCELONA,” no. October, pp. 14–17, 2014.

Sant Andreu

BRIEF HISTORY

The first historical record of a structure existing on the Saint Andreu’s site is from 966. During that century, the church was destroyed in 985 by Al-Mared and rebuilt in 990 as a temple belonging to the parish of Sant Andreu.

The next mention of its existence is in the XII century. In 1100, the church was destroyed by an Almoravid attack. The community re-built a new Romanesque structure again in 1132.

Due to the industrialization of the XIX century, the town encouraged a significant growth. In 1850 the architect Perre Falques was commissioned to construct a new and larger structure. By 1881 the main structure (naves, alter and dome) were completed and the church opened to the public.

On August 9^th 1882, the dome collapsed, killing 7 people and injuring 11 more. To ease public fears and ensure the safety of the new dome, Joan Torras I Guardiola designed a connecting steel frame between the exterior and interior domes. The new dome system was completed in 1885. Between 1889 and 1904 the restoration of the main facade and bell tower was finished.

Only 5 years after its completion, the structure was burned as many other churches in Barcelona during the Tragic Week in 1909. The church was quickly repaired before it was burned and looted again during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. This time, the damages mainly affected the interior and they were not repaired until 3 years later.

The final major event in the XX century which altered the church was the construction of the metro during the years 1965 and 1967. During the construction process some water entered in the tunnels causing settlement of the main facade. The damages induced by these differential settlements were not fixed until 1982 due to a lack of money. This intervention included drilling micro-piles beneath the entrance and first bays of the church and adding two longitudinal (reinforced concrete) beams to tie the front facade to the rest of the structure.

In 2004, a piece of the dome fell, damaging the ceramic tiled roof below. Immediately after the accident, the roof was repaired and a net was added to the dome to prevent future drops. Since that time, a number of investigations have questioned the structural stability of the dome, but again a lack of money hasprevented the implementation of any restoration plans.

ARCHITECTURAL FEATURES AND GEOMETRY

The church was designed in a Neoclassical style in the late XIX century. Regular stone masonry covers the main facade and the lower half of the unique single bell-tower on the right of the structure. The upper tower and tambour of the dome are finished with clay bricks, while the remainder of the exterior was constructed with rubble masonry, mixing bricks with little stones in a non-homogeneous matrix.

The church consists of a main nave and two lateral naves, in a succession of arches forming a barrel vault. The thrust of the main nave is counterbalanced by a system of buttresses connected by orthogonal walls. These longitudinal walls on each side of the central nave have midpoint arch opening between each arched rib of the barrel vault that lead to the smaller lateral naves. The external roofing of these naves is made of traditional Arabic tiles over timber or concrete beams.

Following the typical cross-plan layout, a large and spacious transept crosses the nave before the apse with a large dome above the intersection. The most notable architectural element of the church is the external ribbed dome, rising from 40 to 60m.

DAMAGE AND DIAGNOSIS

The loss of material and presence of a white discoloration throughout the church is likely due to the presence of water in the walls of the church. In the lower sections the water has risen from the ground through capillary action. The white discoloration is an indicator of the efflorescence, which has contributed to the loss of superficial material. In the upper sections near the gutter system, the water has entered due to an aged or poor drainage system.

According to the geotechnical survey done in 1975, the crack appearing today in the connection of the brick tower and the masonry facade is related to the construction of the metro in the front of the church.

The longitudinal cracks observed in the three naves are due to a combination of self-weight and an excessive thrust force causing the leaning of the pillars. The inadequate repair that was done applying short steel bars to the intrados, has simply moved the cracks to the edge of the bars.

The three cracks identified in the apse are likely due to compatibility issues maybe because of the presence of various materials. It can be the similar reason of the cracks found in the lateral walls of the main nave.

The radial cracks identified in seven of the eight segments of the upper dome follow the typical crack distribution in masonry domes.

Sant Andreu D01

Sant Andreu D02

Sant Andreu D03

Sant Andreu D04

Sant Andreu D05

Sant Andreu D06

Sant Andreu D07

Sant Andreu D08

Sant Andreu D09

Sant Andreu D10

Sant Andreu D11

Sant Andreu D12

Sant Andreu D13

Sant Andreu D15

Sant Andreu D17

Sant Andreu D18

Sant Andreu D19

REFERENCES

[1] Buxadé, Margarit, and Ferrando, “Restauració de la cúpula del temple parroquial de Sant Andreu de Palomar,” Barcelona, 2007.

[2] M. A. Lecha Gargallo, “Estudi estructural de l’origen de les lesions de la cúpula de Sant Andreu del Palomar i proposta d’intervenció.” Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 01-Jun-2011.

[3] J. Roca Cornet, Novena en honor de los santos niños Justo y Pastor. Barcelona: Impr. de los Herederos de la Viuda Pla, 1867.

[4] P. F. Monlau i Roca, El amigo forastero en Barcelona y sus cercanías. 1831.