The Grotta dei Cervi in Porto Badisco, Otranto (Le) (Italy), is one of the most important monuments of post- paleolithic wall art in the Mediterranean. Currently, thanks to the 3D laser scanner survey carried out in the cave, there is a complete documentation, a digital archive that collects a database from which it is possible to extrapolate data regarding the morphology of the cave complex and the spatial location. Mapping of the corpus of pictograms, it is possible to digitally preserve the figurative apparatus, which has been and still is being studied by numerous scholars.

Going up on the lookout. A laser scanner survey inside the Gallipoli castleGallipoli is a city located along the Ionian coast of Salento (Apulia, Italy) and it still preserves its original defensive system. Nowadays, the phases dating from the sixteenth century are visible together with the later ones and, in recent years, particular attention was dedicated to the Castle. It was opened for visitors from 2014, except to the so-called tower “Della Vedetta”, located on the northwestern quadrilateral’s corner. The only accessible areas of the castle’s lower level are two rooms with a connecting corridor, but the lower portion of the examined tower offers a rare proof of graffiti that has few local parallels. After a deep bibliographic and archivist research and the comparison with analogue works on similar well-studied contexts, we have carried out a direct analysis of this unknown portion through a 3D laser scanner. The scanner result proved to be an excellent tool to investigate the tower, whose articulation is made up of different rooms located on different levels connected by flights of stairs and where numerous mouths of fire are set. This 3D model allows to delineate the internal articulation, the constructive technique, the structural interventions and the whole corpus of graffiti too. The 3D survey helped to extrapolate considerable and various data. Moreover, it has suggested that a realization of a complete 3D model of the Castle can be a fruitful resource for its knowledge and it could represent a precious tool for an interactive enjoyment of the sectors still not open to visitors.

The tower in the tower. Recovery and 3D survey for virtual visits to the Torre Matta in OtrantoOtranto is one of the biggest ancient settlements in the Salento (Puglia), in the easternmost part of the Italian peninsula. This location has always affected the city’s history, which has a stratified system of defence. As a result of the Turkish invasion of 1480, the city was completely destroyed. During the counter-offensive of 1481 the city was reconquered by the Aragonese, who are credited with the reconstruction of the city and its defences, building high walls with circular towers (still visible and well conserved), which housed artillery pieces on the various floors of the casemates. Around the mid sixteenth century the existing defensive structures were enriched with bastions including the imposing pentagonal structure that incorporates the circular tower of the late fifteenth century, the so-called Torre Matta, facing the harbour. As part of recent recovery measures, the enormous room inside the bastion was completely emptied. This entailed removing all the accumulated material which, over the years, had come to fill the entire space. This material obscured the external wall of the fifteenth century tower enclosed within the bastion, of which, at the beginning of the work, only the stone corbels and the blind arches at the top were visible. The material had also prevented access via the only original entrance, on the south-east side, which was on the level of the moat. The stratified deposits to be removed were about 18 m deep, and the operation served to bring to light the entire room and the tower, making it possible for the first time to appreciate the relationship between the walls. To record the geometry of the individual architectural features, a 3D laser scan was performed, integrated with direct surveys. A three-dimensional model was created in order to enable virtual visits and disseminate knowledge of the monument.

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The walls and moats of the city of Otranto. An integrated three-dimensional survey for studying the architectural and archaeological evidenceThe system of fortifications that rings the old town of the city of Otranto (Puglia, Italy) conserves the still visible traces of structures belonging to various historical periods, attesting to the evolution of the settlement’s defensive system from the Messapian period (fifth century BC) to the Aragonese period (sixteenth century). As part of a recent urban renewal project targeting the area of the moats, new archaeological, historic and architectural investigations were conducted. These included a painstaking analysis of the circuit of defensive walls and the broad and deep moat, which contains valuable archaeological and architectural evidence that has never before been studied. The use of advanced surveying technologies such as 3D Laser Scanners, parametric and georeferenced, enabled a holistic, synoptic and comparative reading of the structures, recording the distinctive features, building techniques, materials, alignments, range of thicknesses and losses of continuity in the walls, all of which are necessary for a correct identification of the construction phases. In addition, the data arising from the study and three-dimensional survey of some subterranean tunnels, entirely excavated in the rock in the area of the moats surrounding the Aragonese castle, have also enriched the framework of knowledge regarding specific military and defensive dynamics.