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The arrival of Spaniards in the Caribbean islands introduced to the region the practice of applying pigments onto buildings. The pigments that remain on these buildings may provide data on their historical evolution and essential information for tackling restoration tasks. In this study, a 17th-century mural painting located in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo on the Hispaniola island of the Caribbean is characterised via UV–VIS–NIR, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy, XRD and SEM/EDX. The pigments are found in the older Chapel of Our Lady of Candelaria, currently Chapel of Our Lady of Mercy. The chapel was built in the 17th century by black slave brotherhood and extended by Spaniards. During a recent restoration process of the chapel, remains of mural painting appeared, which were covered by several layers of lime. Five colours were identified: ochre, green, red, blue and white. Moreover, it was determined that this mural painting was made before the end of the 18th century, because many of the materials used were no longer used after the industrialisation of painting. However, since both rutile and anatase appear as a white pigment, a restoration may have been carried out in the 20th century, and it has been painted white.

Colour always played a role in the human evolutionary process and has been used as a way of expression. But the time, the lack of maintenance and abandonment, the lack of studies related to the presence of polychromy in architecture and the nineteenth-century idea of eliminating building plasters to expose stone and brick have caused many to ignore and forgotten the presence of colour in historical buildings. In most cases disappear leaving only traces of colours. For this reason the aim of this research is study the polychromy on stone of a 16th century gothic Portal in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo. Analyses were performed using non-destructive techniques as Transmission Polarized Light Microscopy (PLM), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy / Energy Dispersive Elemental Analysis X-Ray (SEM/EDX), Gas Chromatography (GC) and X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). To determinate the colour was used a CIELAB System and Munsell Colour System. In conclusion patinas yellow, ochre, red, green and blue colours; and pigmented successive layers of plaster and lime was found. Remains of these layers of polychromies are also spread throughout many areas of the Cathedral.

No abstract

The aims of this research is to analysis a Caribbean historic timber house using nondestructive techniques (NDT). The high cultural and historic value that have the timber buildings in the Caribbean and the necessity to preserve them as intact as possible, make NDTs to gain importance at the moment to selected the method to preserver and assess a historical structures in order to survive damages arising from several reasons including damaged by time. The selected techniques concern the measurement of some physical/mechanical properties and condition. The NDT analyses have been grouped under four major: visual inspection, optical, ultrasound, and electromagnetic. For analysis was used: Rinntech Resistograph model R650-ED, FLIR System model T420 for Infrared thermography (IRT), ARBOTOM for tomography, Electrical Resistance Measuring (ERM) with DELMHORST BD-2100 pin moisture meter (Protimeter) and MASTERGRIP Digital Thermometer with Laser for superficial temperature. These techniques can be applied “in situ”, without destroying the heritage and do not require to take big samples. Also, are the most appropriate tool for the evaluation the structure, materials and decorative elements of Cultural heritage.