Historical Monuments Research Articles

Instrumentation of the Eiffel Tower for Continuous Monitoring

The Eiffel Tower stands as a historic and iconic monument in the city of Paris. With a total height of 330 meters and constructed with wrought iron, it features a lattice metal structure. Completed in 1889 after two years of construction, the tower was initially designed for a 20-year lifespan. Now over 130 years old and welcoming millions of visitors annually, it has become a compelling example of extending the lifespan of a structure through vigilant surveillance and maintenance. Historically, the Eiffel Tower's surveillance program primarily consisted of repeated comprehensive and detailed inspections. Since 2021, it has been equipped with sensors to continuously monitor its overall behaviour. This instrumentation includes motoring of the spire’s inclination, as well as monitoring displacements, deformations, and vibrations in its four pillars. Temperature and humidity measurements are also acquired across the structure, to help providing a comprehensive analysis. This paper presents the implemented instrumentation, addressing challenges related to its deployment, and proposes a first analysis two years after the beginning of the campaign. Seasonal movements and trends are identified, and a brief dynamic study is conducted. Finally, the paper discusses the approach of instrumentation for exceptional structures to complete ongoing surveillance.

Churches and Monasteries in Northern Transylvania in Planning Documents and in Tourism Development Projects Financed by European Funds

Churches and Monasteries in Northern Transylvania in Planning Documents and in Tourism Development Projects Financed by European funds. In the present paper we studied the manner in which county and regional authorities from Northern Transylvania view churches and monasteries located in this area as tourist landmarks. In order to do that, we analyzed the county and regional policies and strategies and looked for projects addressing cultural heritage in the area that were financed by European programmes. While highlighting the diverse tourism potential of the religious buildings, the counties’ development strategies also recommended the preservation and rehabilitation of the historical monuments and promoting them in an integrated manner, as parts of cultural and/or religious routes. These objectives have been realized mostly with the help of the European funds – more than 40 churches were renovated and more than 80 have been promoted using REGIO and INTERREG funds, and wooden churches in Maramureș and Sălaj counties and medieval churches in Satu Mare County were included in thematic routes. Moreover, the creation and promotion of more cultural tourism routes is one of the main objectives of the Romania’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, adding more value to the region’s tourism potential. Keywords: cultural heritage, tourist routes, European funds, churches, Northern Transylvania.

ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF IDENTIFIED HISTORIC BAZAR OF SULTANATE PERIOD TOWARD TOURISM AND ECONOMIC UPLIFTING IN THE REGION OF SOUTHERN PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

Internationally, historic bazars are being regenerated to maintain and sustain the ambience of heritage core of the city. In Pakistan, this concept is also being followed in historic cities like Lahore, which have meaningful results by saving endangered heritage of specific time period as well creating economic, recreational and tourism activities having direct impact on uplifting of the community. There is need to apply this concept of regeneration in the other historic cities of Pakistan especially the remote areas like Southern Punjab where the heritage is being detoriating due to lack of maintenance and encroachment and need to protect on priority basis. Southern Punjab, Pakistan is a cradle of many civilizations and full of historic monuments with a most important era of Sultanate Period in which numbers of shrines were built spiritually in the memory of Sufi saints who played a vital role in spread of Islam in the region. Regular visits by their followers, especially during URS, led to the establishment of commercial and recreational activities in the form of bazars and mela grounds around these shrines. However, as city centers evolved over time, these bazars have deteriorated, necessitating regeneration for the revival of the historic core's ambiance This research focuses on the regeneration of historic bazars during the Sultanate Period in one of the historic settlements of Southern Punjab, Pakistan. The methodology involves a comprehensive survey and interviews with experts, contributing valuable insights to the existing body of knowledge. Emphasizing compliance with SDG-11.4, which underscores the importance of ensuring the safety of indigenous heritage, the study aims to provide practical recommendations for the sustainable regeneration of these historic bazars, safeguarding Southern Punjab's rich cultural legacy.

The possibilities of using historical data on Tambov church monuments of the late 18th – first half of the 19th century in the development of an interactive map

Importance. A number of factors are considered: the possibility of providing relevant historical information to a wide audience, the use of modern technologies for analyzing and distributing historical information, and the significant interest of historians in working within the framework of the methodology used. The purpose of the study is to offer a resource for popularizing the church history of the region. The main sources are used in the work are plans of the city of Tambov and documents from the funds of the Tambov City Duma (16) and the Mezhevaya Chancellery (29) of the State Archive of the Tambov Region, some reference and visual materials, as well as a view of the city of Tambov in 1799.Research Methods. Both classical historical methods and the methodology of historical informatics are used.Results and Discussion. The relevance of modern information technologies use in scientific and educational activities is substantiated. A historiographical analysis of the problem has been carried out, which relates to the theoretical part of the study. The problems associateы with the localization of lost objects on modern maps and their solutions are described, which can be attributed to the practical part. Variants of references of the church history objects of Tambov city for an interactive map of the church history objects of Tambov at the end of the 18th – first half of the 19th century are proposed for consideration. The process of collecting and systematizing information for the formation of historical references of ancient religious buildings in Tambov: the Znamenskaya Church, the Church in the name of the Great Martyr Barbara and the Church of the Life-Giving Trinity is described.Conclusion. The main result of the study is the images demonstration of attaching cartographic, visual and descriptive data on the history of specific monuments of church history to maps.

НАРОДНЫЙ ПЕВЕЦ Н. И. СТЕПАНОВ – НООРОЙ: ВЗАИМОДЕЙСТВИЕ ФОЛЬКЛОРНЫХ И ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫХ ТРАДИЦИЙ

This article touches on the problem of studying the interaction of folklore and literary traditions in the works of authors who came from the people, bearers of oral folk art. In Soviet times, in the literature of the peoples of the USSR, especially in newly written literature, folk singers played a significant role in poetic life. Their works successfully intertwined folklore and literary traditions: a certain synthesis of form and content occurred. In our work, we drew attention to the work of one author, Nikolai Stepanov – Nooroy, a member of the Union of Writers of the USSR, folk singer, olonkhosut, participant in the Great Patriotic War. The relevance of the article lies in the fact that until now the period of active creativity of folk singers of Yakutia, as authors, as creators of Soviet folklore, has been little studied. The subject of our research is the works of N. I. Stepanov – Nooroy, his songs and poems on Soviet themes. The work uses comparative, analytical, and analytical methods to reveal the interaction of folklore and literary traditions and the transformation of folk songs into original songs. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that this work studies the fusion of folklore and literary traditions, their interaction in the works of one author, a bearer of the traditional oral culture of the Sakha people. As a result of the study of the author’s poetic works on the Soviet theme, we concluded that in the poems, songs, and toyuks of N. I. Stepanov, the interaction of folklore and literary traditions is clearly observed. From the works of N. I. Stepanov it is clear that the folk singer, firstly, worked to preserve and transmit the traditions of folk art mainly in olonkho and toyuks, and secondly, he became one of the founders of a new type of folklore, a song genre called Soviet folklore. Stepanov’s songs about labor and workers can be considered historical, because they reflect reality and glorify real people. The writer’s poetic works on Soviet themes reflect historical facts and events of the Soviet period. His works have cultural value, and as works reflecting reality, they are a historical and cultural monument.

Weakly Supervised SVM-Enhanced SAM Pipeline for Stone-by-Stone Segmentation of the Masonry of the Loire Valley Castles.

The preservation of historical monuments presents a formidable challenge, particularly in monitoring the deterioration of building materials over time. Chateau de Chambord's facade suffers from common issues such as flaking and spalling, which require meticulous stone and joint mapping from experts manually for restoration efforts. Advancements in computer vision have allowed machine-learning models to help in the automatic segmentation process. In this research, a custom architecture defined as SAM-SVM is proposed, to perform stone segmentation, based on the Segment Anything Model (SAM) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). By exploiting the zero-shot learning capabilities of SAM and its customizable input parameters, we obtain segmentation mask for stones and joints, which are then classified using SVM. Two more SAMs (three in total) are used, depending on how many stones are left to segment. Through extensive experimentation and evaluation, supported by computer vision methods, the proposed architecture achieves a Dice coefficient of 85%. Our results highlight the potential of SAM in cultural heritage conservation, providing a scalable and efficient solution for stone segmentation in historic monuments. This research contributes valuable insights and methodologies to the ongoing conservation efforts of Château de Chambord and could be extrapolated to other monuments.

Automatic Removal of Non-Architectural Elements in 3D Models of Historic Buildings with Language Embedded Radiance Fields

Neural radiance fields have emerged as a dominant paradigm for creating complex 3D environments incorporating synthetic novel views. However, 3D object removal applications utilizing neural radiance fields have lagged behind in effectiveness, particularly when open set queries are necessary for determining the relevant objects. One such application area is in architectural heritage preservation, where the automatic removal of non-architectural objects from 3D environments is necessary for many downstream tasks. Furthermore, when modeling occupied buildings, it is crucial for modeling techniques to be privacy preserving by default; this also motivates the removal of non-architectural elements. In this paper, we propose a pipeline for the automatic creation of cleaned, architectural structure only point clouds utilizing a language embedded radiance field (LERF) with a specific application toward generating suitable point clouds for the structural integrity assessment of occupied buildings. We then validated the efficacy of our approach on the rooms of the historic Sion hospital, a national historic monument in Valais, Switzerland. By using our automatic removal pipeline on the point clouds of rooms filled with furniture, we decreased the average earth mover’s distance (EMD) to the ground truth point clouds of the physically emptied rooms by 31 percent. The success of our research points the way toward new paradigms in architectural modeling and cultural preservation.

New Era in Cultural Heritage Preservation: Cooperative Aerial Autonomy for Fast Digitalization of Difficult-to-Access Interiors of Historical Monuments

Digital documentation of large interiors of historical buildings is an exhausting task since most of the areas of interest are beyond typical human reach. We advocate the use of autonomous teams of multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to speed up the documentation process by several orders of magnitude while allowing for a repeatable, accurate, and condition-independent solution capable of precise collision-free operation at great heights. The proposed multi-robot approach allows for performing tasks requiring dynamic scene illumination in large-scale real-world scenarios, a process previously applicable only in small-scale laboratory-like conditions. Extensive experimental analyses range from single-UAV imaging to specialized lighting techniques requiring accurate coordination of multiple UAVs. The system's robustness is demonstrated in more than two hundred autonomous flights in fifteen historical monuments requiring superior safety while lacking access to external localization. This unique experimental campaign, cooperated with restorers and conservators, brought numerous lessons transferable to other safety-critical robotic missions in documentation and inspection tasks.

THE SOCIO-POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERIOD IN WHICH THE UZBEK POET AND THINKER BOBORAKHIM MASHRAB LIVED

In this scientific article, a small region such as "Dahbed", which is among the famous cities of Uzbekistan such as Samarkand and Bukhara, is also famous in the Islamic world, and several historical and cultural monuments are inextricably linked with the history of Dahbed in Central Asia and beyond. and the toponymy of Boborahim Mashrab heritage was studied and analyzed.

RECONSTRUCTION OF BUILDINGS AS A METHOD OF PRESERVING HISTORICAL BUILDINGS

Reconstruction of buildings is an important method of preserving historic buildings, as it allows to combine the preservation of architectural and historical values with the needs of modern life. The preservation of historical and cultural heritage is a key strategic direction for the development of modern cities and a way of self-identification of peoples. Historic buildings, regardless of their functional, constructive and aesthetic qualities, allow us to pass on to future generations the material evidence of the past, the spirit of the era, and the unique atmosphere of cities. Modern urban planning policy, despite its offensive nature, provides for the maximum preservation of historic buildings and structures, their reconstruction, modernisation or renovation. The only way to avoid oblivion and destruction is to make full use of them. In today's world, countries' desire for cultural self-identification and interest in authentic architectural surroundings contributes to the preservation of not only unique buildings and structures listed in the registers of architectural and historical monuments, but also high-quality "background architecture" - second-plan architecture, inconspicuous, less valuable, but which is essential for the formation of the "image of the city". It is this type of building that most often becomes the object of active reconstruction. The purpose of the article is to explore the significance of the impact of historical buildings on the formation of the urban environment, to study the experience of reconstruction of historical buildings, and to show the possibilities of reconstruction as a method of preserving cultural heritage. For this purpose, the article analyses the practical principles of foreign experience in reconstruction, renovation, adaptation and modernisation of buildings and structures for various purposes - residential, public, industrial, and engineering. The article provides examples of completed projects for the reconstruction of residential (East Germany, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Norfolk, Copenhagen, Paris), public (Berlin, Brisbane, London, Hanover, Hong Kong, Nuremberg, Venice) and industrial buildings (Barcelona, Riga, MontjuХre, Leshno, Villars de Dalt, Kyiv, Brooklyn, Roskilde, Brussels, Eindhoven, Lviv) and engineering structures (Bankside, Toronto, Dorset, Utrecht, London) that show a variety of architectural and planning techniques of reconstruction. The study of foreign and domestic experience in the reconstruction of buildings and structures expands the possibilities for the effective use of historic buildings, improves the methods of volumetric and spatial organisation of development, and prolongs the life of historic buildings.

Metaproteomic analysis of King Ghezo tomb wall (Abomey, Benin) confirms 19th century voodoo sacrifices.

The palace of King Ghezo in Abomey, capital of the ancient kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin), houses two sacred huts which are specific funerary structures. It is claimed that the binder in their walls is made of human blood. In the study presented here, we conceived an original strategy to analyze the proteins present on minute amounts of the cladding sampled from the inner facade of the cenotaph wall and establish their origin. The extracted proteins were proteolyzed and the resulting peptides were characterized by high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Over 6397 distinct molecular entities were identified using cascading searches. Starting from without a priori searches of an extended generic database, the peptide repertoire was narrowed down to the most representative organisms-identified by means of taxon-specific peptides. A wide diversity of bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals were detected through the available protein material. This inventory was used to archaeologically reconstruct the voodoo rituals of consecration and maintenance of vitality. Several indicators attested to the presence of traces of human and poultry blood in the material taken. This study shows the essential advantages of paleoproteomics and metaproteomics for the study of ancient residues from archaeological excavations or historical monuments.

Interactive 360° media for the dissemination of endangered world heritage sites: the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria

Since the onset of conflict in Syria in 2011, several heritage sites have suffered partial or complete destruction. The ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1980, was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2013, alongside five other Syrian heritage sites. Between 2015 and 2017, Palmyra experienced the loss of nearly 40% of its historic buildings and landmarks. The site’s remote location and ongoing armed conflict pose additional challenges in accessing and preserving it.This paper introduces an interactive online platform employing 360° media to document and disseminate information about the world heritage site of Palmyra. The platform contributes to the safeguarding process of Palmyra, facilitating public engagement and interaction with the site. It also has potential applications for other sites in Syria and beyond. The platform allows users to explore both archival and current information of damaged historical monuments and buildings, revealing their layered histories before and after demolition. Employing interactive 360° media, similar to applications like Google Street View, the platform offers a reality-based digital environment. Users can virtually move into different buildings or follow specific pathways within the site, accessing archival information and documentation about particular monuments and buildings along their journey.This project serves as a unique informational resource for decision-makers and policy planners, aiding in the understanding of the site and the development of relevant strategies and recommendations. It also proves beneficial as an educational tool. The collective understanding fostered by this platform is expected to positively influence post-conflict restoration and reconstruction plans, making it an invaluable asset for research and educational purposes.

Historical Analysis of Gilgit Baltistan and Evaluation of Its Ethnic Diversity

Gilgit Baltistan is located at the junction of central and South Asia, at the essence of three mighty mountain ranges: the Hindukush, the Himalaya, and the Karakorum, with a wholesome number of glaciers and a worthful quantity of mighty hills. Besides the ancient language, Burushaski is one aspect of cultural variation. The glimpses of historical monuments, multiple ruins of archeological sites, and Buddhist relics narrate the splendid past of this region, which works multidimensionally in projecting the beauty of this land, promoting tourism, exploring the cultural diversity, encouraging the socio-economic status and infrastructure development. The land of Gilgit Baltistan is unique and has geographical, geological, racial, linguistic, and cultural diversity. These artistic, social, ethnic, and linguistic aspects make the foundation of regional identity, which is used in local and regional politics and later emerges in large-scale conflicts and disputes. This study explores the historical prospects of Gilgit Baltistan in a chronological manner in addition to its contemporary geostrategic significance. In the current scenario, the historical analysis of Gilgit Baltistan is contributing more after the advent of the Pakistan Economic Corridor, which refers to the increasing socio-economic development and decreasing cultural conflict.

Review of cultural and educational tourism objects based on the samurai heritage of Japan

The article examines the main objects of display of the cultural samurai heritage of Japan: historical monuments, museums and architectural objects of cultural value, as well as festivals of Japan with samurai.

USE OF FOREIGN STRATEGIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TOURISM POTENTIAL OF UZBEKISTAN

Uzbekistan attracts the attention of the whole world with its many historical and architectural monuments, diverse climate and rapid development

Spatial Distribution of Relationship between Historical Monuments and Tourism: The Case Study of Bihor County in Romania

Spatial Distribution of Relationship between Historical Monuments and Tourism: The Case Study of Bihor County in Romania

Comparison Regarding the Carbon Footprint of Various Sustainable Seismic Consolidation Solutions for Romanian Orthodox Churches

In Romania, there are numerous Orthodox churches, many of which are historical monuments of great cultural value that have suffered multiple degradations over time due to various natural or man-made reasons. In a context that is currently increasingly focused on environmental protection, we aim to analyse the carbon footprint of several different consolidation proposals to an Orthodox church with structural deteriorations (and more) and the equivalent impact if a similar building were erected with new materials. The research is proposed to be a stepping stone for determining the sustainability of interventions for orthodox churches, as the existing literature is scarce when it comes to the emissions of these churches and there is no norm to prevent unsustainable interventions. The Orthodox Church “Sfintii Voievozi”, the subject of the analysis, is in the city of Tg. Jiu, Gorj County. The construction was documented to be between 1748 and 1764 and is a historical monument listed in the LMI GJ-II-m-A-09189 registry. The architectural solutions for the church and the structural elements that comprise the load-bearing system are presented. A detailed investigation was conducted to determine structural and non-structural degradations, specifying the main causes that have produced them. With regard to consolidation solutions, two options are presented and compared in this paper: Alternative I—minimal intervention and Alternative II—maximal intervention, both of which are reversible. The carbon footprint calculation was carried out for both options, determining the associated material consumption, and compared to the carbon footprint for the case of a new construction. In conclusion, the consolidation methods with a minimal degree of intervention is recommended as the “most environmentally friendly”, considering carbon emissions when comparing the options.

Building the Nation in Stone and Wood. Restorations and Writings about Historical Monuments in the First Half of the Twentieth Century in Romania

The paper looks at restoration and preservation practices and at art history writings to explore attitudes and mentalities in the first decades of the twentieth century in Romania. It deciphers the creation of an architectural heritage and the meanings of writings about and restoring historical monuments in a young nation-state that expanded significantly after World War I. Some of the major restoration sites in Romania, around 1900, are analysed together with several of the architectural history writings of the interwar period that reveal a growing turn to nationalism in the Romanian cultural and political spheres.

Heritage Identification of monuments using Deep Learning Techniques

The Heritage Identification of Monuments web application employs different Machine learning technologies like Convolutional Neural Networks(CNN) and Deep Learning, to identify historical sites and monuments. The project focuses on training machine learning model to identify heritage sites and monuments with the use of CNN to extract features from images and help in identifying historical monuments. This project focuses on collection data from satellite images and user contributions, thus expanding the database and offering information on different identified monuments. This initiative aims to promote general awareness among the public and promote heritage preservation with labelled datasets and machine learning technologies. Machine learning techniques have evolved over the years, in this project we highlight the main techniques and algorithms by which we extract data from images and compare different mathematical models to test the accuracy. Additionally, the web-app helps to create a good reach among the masses and raise awareness. Keywords— Machine learning, Deep Learning, Convolution Neural Network (CNN), Pattern Recognition, Indian Monuments, Open source.

Symbolism of Sacred Art in Water Conduits

Nepal is a country with abundance of traditional art, architecture and culture. Almost every monument comprises faith, belief, devotion and sacredness which are initiated to be expressed through symbolic representation. Historicity of water conduit of Kathmandu valley can be traced back to early Cristian Era. They were installed to fulfill basic need of water. Flowing water is compared to goddess Ganga. Thus, every water conduit is equated to goddess Ganga with depiction of a crocodile, her vehicle. Cent percent water conduits of the valley consists of sculptural art associated to Hindu or Buddhist deities and a few with architectural monuments. It also comprises sculptural art of several creatures as; serpent, fish, frog, chameleon, mongoose. These deities, monuments and creatures are found to be a symbolic expression of theme associated with religious belief and faith. In this context, finding out the theme of an art expressed in a water conduit, chief feature of sacred sculptural art of water conduits and symbolic representation of sculptural art of water conduits of Kathmandu valley have been focused as an objective of this research. This qualitative research is based upon historical fact. Thus, the facts are collected from historical monuments through survey, interview, collection of photographs and are analyzed in a descriptive way. Related literary sources have been consulted as a secondary source. From several references, it is to be considered that water conduits of the valley have been basically set up for social and religious utility with installation of several deities according to their faith. Art of each conduit as well as image portrays specific features belong to related historical age. Besides this, each sculptural art depicted on the conduit conveys symbolism of goddess Ganga and several pilgrimages composed within a precise pious abode.