Methodology for the study of the walls of the Patio de Santo Tomás , University of Alcalá

The main courtyard of the University of Alcalá, Patio de Santo Tomas, has undergone many transformations and changes of use since it was built in the 16th century. During the restoration works of the building, the wall renderings were removed, showing the building materials of the walls. It was observed that the historical building works were overlapped on the same plane of the wall. This exceptional event allowed a direct study of the historical evolution occurred on the building, through an analysis of the materials and the construction techniques. The aims of the study were: first, finding out the shape and size, building techniques and materials of the original Patio; second, identifying the main elements and construction techniques of the different historical stages of the building; and third, surveying the successive building works undertaken in the building over the past five centuries. In order to achieve these goals, the methodology used combined historic and graphic documentation, stratigraphy, morphology and metric analysis and materials characterization. rials and building techniques, a set of high quality photographs of all the four walls and several materials samples were taken. It was observed that the historical building works were overlapped on the same plane of the wall. From these new data, a research program was conducted, combining different techniques. The main objectives of the study were: first, finding out the shape and size, building techniques and materials of the original Patio; second, identifying the main elements and construction techniques of the different historical stages of the building; and third, surveying the successive building works undertaken in the building over the past five centuries. This study is part of the Program “Geomateriales. Durabilidad y conservación de geomateriales del patrimonio construido” (S2009/MAT-1629) funded by the Comunidad de Madrid.