Giving Depth to the Traces of Nossa Senhora da Piedade da Caparica

Abstract

Following an extensive renovation project in the 1950s and a lack of documentation throughout its life, the Convent of the Capuchos of Caparica (1558) today is in a state of confusion about the original configuration of its spaces. Since 1558, generations of Capuchos lived in the convent until the religious orders of Portugal were extinguished in 1834. Following this, it was abandoned for over one-hundred years until the renovation of the 1950s that inserted many new spaces. Presently, the convent serves the community of Almada as a space for recitals, concerts, wedding receptions and other social events that although fruitful to the community, mask its original conception as a place of silence and solitary contemplation for a small group of Franciscan friars known across Portugal as Capuchos. The research project described in this paper employs an interdisciplinary, mixed-methodological research approach to virtual reconstruction to provide the scientific validation for an HBIM reconstruction of the past condition of the convent prior to the 1950s. The approach combines historic text analysis and visualization with photogrammetric surveying of details and spaces found in other convents across the region as a means to visualize the traces that today are no longer present in Caparica.