THE PRODOMEA PHASING AND COMPATIBILITY INDICATORS AS TOOLS FOR THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF CONSERVATION INTERVENTIONS. ASSESSMENT AND VALIDATION IN THE SANTA CLARA-A-VELHA MONASTERY (COIMBRA, PORTUGAL)

Abstract

The PRODOMEA 8-phase model is a DSS that aims at tackling with the diversity of conditions, materials, methods and disciplines involved in monument conservation interventions by accompanying planners through conceiving, designing and execution phases, suggesting recommended actions and key actors for each phase. For most recommended actions, different options available should be considered in light of their physical-chemical, operational, socio-cultural and environmental compatibility towards the monument, which may be assessed via quantitative and semi-quantitative indicators, resulting in an overall (in)compatibility index, thus guiding decision making. The Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha (Coimbra, Portugal) today essentially corresponds to the early XIV century church and cloister, and to a rich collection of archaeological finds, that detail the nunnery life until it was abandoned to recurrent river flooding, in the late XVII century; ultimately, all but the church top was submersed for most of the XX century. The Monastery recently suffered an extensive conservation intervention, integrated in a larger requalification project that included the construction of a containment barrier against flooding, the exhaustive archaeological survey of the site and the construction of an interpretative centre. The PRODOMEA approach was applied as a post-intervention exercise with a double objective: to validate the use of this methodology as an assessment tool, and as an instrument to extract knowledge on best practices and on actions to be avoided or modified in future interventions. This paper reports the main outcome of this exercise. The exercise indicated that this DSS is suited to serve as a planning tool for complex interventions and, for Santa Clara-a-Velha, its using would have made a qualitative difference, namely by anticipating some of the problems that arose during execution. Attention is drawn to three illustrative examples: the apse rooftop and the cloister paving bricks and lithic remains to be remounted.