Identifying disappeared historic buildings of port of Callao using georeferencing

Abstract

The port of Callao is important for its varied historical and archaeological heritage, which includes several military buildings that were the main actors and witnesses of the colonial era of Peru (from the 16th century to the country’s independence from Spain early in the 19th century). Despite the studies that have been carried out on the basis of documents and some eventual archaeological excavations, the port’s main monument, namely, the Real Felipe Fortress, continues to hide very important information that could be used to understand the role that the fortress played in numerous historical events throughout the centuries. The main contribution of this study is the use of photogrammetry software and a Geographic Information System (GIS) to examine the Real Felipe Fortress. In this way, the nature of the atypical construction within the fortress is determined. As a result, it is possible to accurately establish the location of the defensive wall that surrounded the ancient city of Callao, as well as its first churches, whose records were lost after being destroyed by the 1746 earthquake and tsunami in Lima, the worst cataclysm registered in the history of Peru and South America. As a result, this study demonstrates that technology can be successfully used to establish and validate with great precision the existence of the location of churches that have been built in the port of Callao since the founding of Lima in the 16th century. Such identification allows architects, engineers and students who are interested in the history of monuments to discover hidden structures and buildings and carry out the necessary restoration and archaeological works, with the aim of recovering the history of the colonial architecture of Callao and other similar cities and ports worldwide.