The survey of the complex of the Nativity church in Bethlehem

The Basilica of the Nativity is one of the oldest Christian churches, built around 330 on the initiative of Emperor Constantine I and mother Elena on the ruins of a pagan temple built in the period of Hadrian on the places where the early Christians celebrated the birth of Jesus, and enlarged and restored in the sixth century by Emperor Justinian I. The complex has undergone several expansions and modifications both in the Crusader period than in later centuries, presenting today as a complex system of volumes and structures that is divided in the Franciscan monastery, the Orthodox monastery and the Armenian monastery, located around the walls of the basilica. Consider the needs of restoring the covers, the trussed roof, the wall surfaces, mosaics, and the entrance with its wooden door of the thirteenth century, in 2010, following an international tender, the preliminary study of the monument was assigned to a multidisciplinary team coordinated by Ferrara Research Consortium (University of Ferrara), with the aim of drawing up the restoration project and, in 2013, the Palestinian government has promoted the restoration whose execution of the work was assigned to the company Piacenti SPA, under the supervision of universities. The joint laboratory landscape Survey & Design has conducted surveys of the complex testing methodologies for data acquisition for the development of architectural drawings and three- dimensional models aimed at the documentation of the restoration and development of tools for the promotion of the complex.