Search Results (9)

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was officially liquidated by the Soviet authorities at the L’viv Pseudo-Council of 1946. However, the clergy and faithful who remained loyal to their Church formed an underground church structure. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the underground Greek Catholics had special hopes for the revival of the UGCC. This was due to the easing of repression in the USSR after Stalin’s death and the preparation and convening of the Second Vatican Council. It was at this time that Pope John XXIII managed to secure the release of the head of the UGCC, Metropolitan Josyf Slipyj, who had spent 18 years in the Soviet labor camps and exile. At that time, many suspicions and accusations arose among the clergy and faithful of the underground UGCC due to insufficient information about the actions and decisions of the Council. In those years, a movement emerged that later grew into an apocalyptic sect (“Pokutnyky”). Ecumenical talks between the Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church, the issue of patriarchal status for the UGCC, ritual disputes, and so on also caused a lot of discussion among the Greek Catholics in Ukraine. This paper is an attempt to provide a better understanding of the perception of the Vatican II decisions by underground Greek Catholics within their struggle for the existence and revival of their Church. Full article

The spread of new survey strategies for the documentation and 3D reconstruction of complex cultural heritage sites enables the implementation of virtual web navigation systems that are useful for their virtual fruition. In particular, remote indoor/outdoor exploration enhances our knowledge of cultural heritage sites, even in inaccessible or difficult-to-visit states. However, the 3D data acquisition of complex sites for documentation remains a challenge, and the 3D virtual exploration of these datasets is often limited to property software implementations. This work describes the 3D documentation and construction of an indoor/outdoor web visualization system based on the WebGL open-source technology of a complex cultural heritage site. The case study regards the complex of “Santa Maria della Grotta” in Marsala (Italy), which is composed of a church that is located mostly underground and is connected to a human-dug hypogea on the site of a Punic necropolis. The aim of the work was to obtain detailed 3D documentation of the indoor and outdoor spaces through the integration of mobile laser scanning and aerial photogrammetry survey, and to develop a virtual web navigation system for the remote exploration of the site. The indoor/outdoor web navigation system provides users with a simple, web-browser-based 3D visualization, enabling the dissemination of the monuments’ knowledge on the web through an economically sustainable solution based on open-source technologies. Full article

In northern Campania (Southern Italy), the historic center of many towns is characterized by the widespread presence of cavities in the subsoil, excavated over the centuries for quarrying tuff blocks for buildings, along with cathedrals, churches and chapels. A singular feature of these places of worship is, in fact, the presence of a wide and frequently connected network of underground cavities and tunnels, which were used for hydraulic, religious or connecting purposes. The cavity network is often unknown, abandoned or even buried, thus representing a risk for their susceptibility to sinkholes. Such elements are important as cultural heritage of inestimable value and as attractors for tourism; for this reason, the multidisciplinary study conducted on a place of worship in the Caserta area is illustrated herein: the Cloister of Sant’Agostino, in Caserta (XVI century CE). A geological and geotechnical characterization of the subsoil was performed at first. A laser scanner survey of the accessible cavities and the external churchyard was carried out. The resulting 3D model of the underground sector allowed for a clear understanding of the room size, their location, the levels and the path of the corridors. To understand the extension and layout of the crypts, Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) surveys were undertaken in the surrounding areas. The analysis of the ERT measurements revealed some anomalies that could be ascribed to unknown structures (crypts). Finally, numerical methods were applied to estimate the stress state of the soft rocks and the potential areas of crisis, with preliminary assessments of the influence of the presence of cavities on the stability of the subsoil. The results allowed us to improve the knowledge of the study site and provide useful data for the planning of future targeted investigations, underlining how integrated research between applied disciplines can provide indispensable support both in the management and mitigation of geological risks in urban areas and in the sustainable reuse of hypogea. Full article

The ancient concept of the underground is mainly associated with the outdated triadic cosmology. In modernity, some authors such as Dostoevsky and Nietzsche have dialectically referred to the underground as an alternative to the principle of reason or ground. Others—such as Hegel or Heidegger—have more radically linked this dialectic to the abyssal unground, recalling Boehme and Hölderlin. However, all these modern dialectical constellations of ground, underground, or unground have failed to provide a philosophical vision that would overcome the aporetic relationship between metaphysical grounding and phenomenal appearance. They have left aside the reality of the Marian underground, overshadowed by the Spirit and Cross and marked by Christ’s descent into the underground, by which the powers of the ancient underground were apocalyptically drawn into the liturgical celebration of a persecuted Church. In this article, I will link Jan Patočka’s phenomenology of the underground experience and Zdeněk Neubauer’s Marian metaphysics to prove that, in the apocalyptic horizon of suffering and persecution, the Sophianic and Marian revelations spell out the created form of Trinitarian being, that becomes a miraculous rescue of all relations and phenomena as the ground shining from within the underground, and the underground within the ground. Full article

The georadar method was used to try to find some anthropic structures in a large square inside the Carabinieri barracks in the former military complex of San Giacomo degli Spagnoli in Palermo (Italy). These investigations are part of a broader context of a study of the entire area. The purpose of the investigations is to try to understand if under the ground there are the remains of an ancient horse passage that connected the Royal Palace of Palermo with the sea gate of the city. Furthermore, in the Middle Ages, on the site of the present square, there were most likely two churches, which no longer exist, as evidenced by numerous historical testimonies. One of the two, San Giacomo la Mazara, is known to have was placed right in front of the church of San Paolo, the subject of previous investigations. The investigations carried out on the main square of the military district allowed us to reconstruct a 3D georadar model in which numerous anomalies are highlighted. Some superficial anomalies have been attributed to the presence of sub-services, the deeper ones could be caused by the remains of the medieval underground way or those of the no longer existing medieval churches, but identifying their true nature requires further investigations and archaeological tests. Full article

Three-dimensional digital acquisition techniques can be useful in archaeology because they make a further technological contribution to the visualization of finds and structures. The possibility of integrating three-dimensional models from different acquisition systems (laser scanner, UAV, reflex and Georadar) is even more exciting. One of the peculiarities of these integration techniques is the possibility of promoting the dissemination of knowledge through virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, given the widespread use of mobile devices. This does not mean, of course, that with the mere creation of a 3D model (and allowing it to be viewed in 3D), the public automatically obtains more information about heritage. In fact, visiting a cultural heritage site in person allows one to receive much more information on finds and structures. However, if this is not possible, technologies that use 3D Virtual Reality help to provide a small knowledge base to those who cannot use the museum. We underline the importance of an integrated visualization from an archaeological and architectural perspective to obtain understanding of the structure with the integration of the two models with different data. The work that we present is part of a multidisciplinary project to recover and disseminate information about the Reggio Calabria’s (southern Italy) artistic, archaeological and cultural heritage. This work’s goal is the realization of a unique 3D model of the church “Madonna dei Poveri” (3D model of a buried part with 3D model of visible parts) by combining different geomatics techniques to show and investigate the interior and exterior parts (3D model obtained by laser scanner and photogrammetry), and the underground crypts (3D model obtained by Georadar), which are lying below the present surface and are no longer accessible due to coverage by post-depositional processes (Georadar). Finally, an app (using augmented reality and virtual reality) and a first experimentation of Mixed Reality is developed for the dissemination of the archaeological and cultural heritage information on the area of interest. Full article

A multi-analytical approach was employed to study wall paintings located in the Sotterra church at Paola, in the province of Cosenza, Italy. The site is an underground church (hence the name of Sotterra, which means “under the earth”) rediscovered in the second half of the 19th century, during the building works of the Madonna del Carmine church on the same area. This underground church preserves valuable mural paintings having different styles. The construction’s dating and overlapped modifications made until the site was abandoned is also debated. A wall painting, depicting “The Virgin” as part of the “Annunciation and the Archangel Gabriel” present on the opposite side of the apse, was selected and investigated using both in situ and laboratory-based analysis. Preliminarily, the non-destructive investigations involved several analytical techniques (IR imaging, UV-Induced Visible Fluorescence, and X-ray Fluorescence analyses) that provided mapping and characterization of pictorial layers and first data about deterioration phenomena. On the basis of this information, a more in-depth study was conducted on micro-fragments aimed at characterizing the stratigraphy and to identify the artist’s technique. Cross-sections were analysed using polarized optical microscopy and electron scanning microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to obtain morphological and chemical information on the selected pictorial micro-fragments of the wall painting. The results allowed to characterize the pigments and provide better readability of the whole figure, revealing details that are not visible to the naked eye, important for future historical-artistic and conservative studies. The results represent the first step of a systematic archaeometric research aimed at supporting the ongoing historical-stylistic studies to distinguish the different building phases hypothesized for this religious site which remained buried for three centuries. Full article

Lecce is a city located in the southern part of the Apulia region (south Italy). Its subsoil is rich in the remains of superimposed ancient settlements from the Messapian period (7th–3rd century BC) to the Roman, Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. Lecce Cathedral is one of the most important buildings in the town. It was built in the 12th century and transformed in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys were carried out in the cathedral and its crypt with the aim to evidence both probably buried structures related to the known crypt and other features such as tombs. The GPR investigations allow us to locate many features under the floor of the church. Some of them are unknown and could belong to the previous building of the Romanesque period. Furthermore, most of the identified structures are related to tombs and underground rooms (ossuaries). Under the crypt floor, six tombs of the 19th and 20th centuries and other ancient structures were documented. Full article

This article examines the liturgical life of the “Underground” Greek Catholic Church through the example of the life of the prominent priest, writer and poet, Roman Bakhtalovskyy, CSsR. After 1946, the Soviet government in Ukraine prohibited the activity of this Church. Therefore, the sacramental activity of Greek Catholic priests was performed in complete secrecy until 1989. The analysis of archival criminal cases is an important source of research during this difficult period for the Church, in which pastoral activity was a pretext for arrest and imprisonment, and sacred objects were seized during searches. This article analyzes in detail the criminal case of Fr. Roman Bakhtalovskyy, which was opened by special services in 1968–1969. The confiscated objects of analysis provide valuable information about the liturgical activity, devotional practices and spirituality of that period of persecution of Catholics in Soviet Ukraine which coincided with the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and their implementation elsewhere. Full article