The Project of the Rehabilitation of Holy Sepulchre’s Holy Aedicule as a Pilot Multispectral, Multidimensional, Novel Approach Through Transdisciplinarity and Cooperation in the Protection of Monuments

Abstract

The Holy Aedicule of the Holy Sepulchre, an emblematic monument that has survived throughout the centuries, recently underwent a major and demanding rehabilitation under the responsibility of the National Technical University of Athens Interdisciplinary Team. The requirement for reinstating structural integrity to the Holy Aedicule, for preservation of the values it represents and for achieving a sustainable rehabilitation in a demanding environment, demanded a complex framework of cooperation between different disciplines and the religious and societal carriers. Innovations were developed and successfully implemented in order to assist in achieving the project goals, marking future trends in the field of monuments protection. The rehabilitation of the Holy Aedicule, through fruitful cooperation between engineering disciplines, evolved beyond a purely engineering achievement into an emblematic example of transdisciplinarity, where Holistic Innovation and Research are intertwined with Social accessibility and the Sciences of Archaeology and Theology, creating new paths into discovering the secrets of the Tomb of Christ.