Spain skilled an advanced yr for cultural heritage in 2025. An unintentional hearth, it sounds as if brought about by way of an electrical cleaner, engulfed the mosque-cathedral in Córdoba on August 8 and broken a number of of its chapels.
This match was once the last of a summer time of enormous wooded area fires wherein Galicia, Castilla y León and Extremadura have been probably the most affected areas. The hearth devastated virtually 400,000 hectares and threatened towns, herbal and cultural landmarks. Some of the threatened websites have been Las Medulas, an historical Roman mining complicated, or the town of Italica.
The prevalence of fires at the Iberian Peninsula. A) Hectares burned in keeping with yr. Information for 2025 are proven in crimson; B) Spaces suffering from fires in 2025 Spaces affected in 2025 are proven in inexperienced and fires that passed off in September are proven in blue; C) Seasons wherein massive fires have been activated between 2000 and 2025. International Hearth Data Gadget, CC BI-NC
Those occasions reopened the controversy at the control of cultural heritage broken by way of hearth. Till now, maximum fires on cultural houses had an interior foundation and have been brought about by way of electric faults or injuries throughout the constructions. Then again, local weather alternate and lengthening temperatures and plants corridors between forests and towns (the so-called urban-forest interface) are converting the state of affairs.
The assistance of science and generation
On this context, science performs a basic position in each prevention and restoration. When a cultural asset is destroyed by way of hearth, the selections of the restorers resolve what and the way to reserve it. Subsequently, they want to have clinical knowledge to steer their interventions and save you additional hurt.
To do that, mavens are increasingly more turning to trendy laboratory tactics, which temporarily and as it should be assess the wear and tear. Its use permits making plans for recovery and designing methods that improve the resistance of those property to long term fires:
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM-EDX) is without doubt one of the maximum often used tactics in recovery. The electron beam hits the micro-sample of the fabric, which permits acquiring very high-resolution photographs of the outside and likewise watching the gray-scale distinction in step with the atomic weight of the fabric. As well as, elemental chemical analyzes may also be carried out with it.
All this is helping to grasp the composition of the used pigments and preparatory layers (for instance, if plaster or carbonate was once used). In works suffering from hearth, it presentations the wear and tear to the composition and identifies the pigments and fillers, which were altered by way of the fireplace and that have modified colour. It additionally lets you follow the adjustments brought about by way of the fireplace, equivalent to cracks, fissures and voids brought about by way of gasoline leaks.
A pattern of a fire-damaged polychrome sculpture got by way of SEM-EDX. Within the image you’ll see the other layers that make up the polychromy of the piece. From backside to most sensible: the preparation layer and the other layers of paint. Injury within the type of cavities and cracks may also be seen in some of these layers. Symbol got within the creator’s laboratory. Fourier turn into infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy are molecular research tactics that vibrate the bonds of molecules and document which frequencies are absorbed. Thus, chemical households or elements found in artworks are recognized. Each tactics are complementary and make allowance the identity of binders, varnishes, pigments and fillers. Moreover, when those ingredients are uncovered to excessive temperatures, their construction can alternate and be observed within the spectra. This is helping to know the level of the wear and tear.
Spectrum got by way of FTIR of a polychrome sculpture pattern. Shows bands related to practical teams, which enable identity of various fabrics. The presence of gypsum (preparation), oil (binder) and white lead (pigment) is seen. Symbol got within the creator’s laboratory.
Multispectral and hyperspectral cameras are broadly used to investigate massive spaces (as they are able to be fixed on drones or satellites) and cultural property of more than a few sizes within the laboratory. They document the radiation mirrored by way of the outside of the fabric at other wavelengths. They stumble on adjustments invisible to the human eye and exactly demarcate broken spaces.
After a wooded area hearth, cameras that gather near-infrared knowledge distinguish wholesome plants from burned plants, as a result of unaffected crops replicate this radiation extra. The normalized burn fee (NBR) and dNBR, calculated from multispectral or hyperspectral photographs earlier than and after the fireplace, are used to evaluate the level of wear. This permits mavens to evaluate the have an effect on of fires at the territory, guiding the identity of affected spaces and their restoration.
Consultants and clinical wisdom
Clinical analyzes are equipment that information essential choices. After a fireplace, recovery groups will have to assess which fabrics may also be stabilized, which interventions require particular remedies, and which fits are, sadly, irreplaceable.
The guidelines equipped by way of those tactics does now not save you loss, but it surely does scale back the danger of worsening harm. As well as, it serves to keep historic knowledge that will another way be misplaced and to design more secure and extra environment friendly methods in very refined works. On this method, the clinical research of cultural items broken by way of hearth supplies very precious knowledge for his or her recovery and minimizes dangers, making sure their survival through the years.
The fashion is apparent: science now not handiest prevents, but in addition reacts to emergency scenarios. This means was once transparent within the recovery of Notre Dame Cathedral after a devastating hearth in 2019, the place the paintings was once in line with forged clinical enhance. Analysis was once now not a luxurious however a need that made it conceivable to ensure restoration after a crisis.
The content material of the thing was once ready in collaboration with David Diaz Jimenez, a graduate in geography and historical past on the Pablo de Olavide College in Seville.
