Читать книгу Monument Future - Siegfried Siegesmund - Страница 63

The state of Oaxaca has a very long history of architectural construction and an important archaeological heritage. The Zapotecs and Mixtecs were the leading cultures in the region until the Aztecs invaded in 1428, and finally conquered by the Spanish conquistadors in 1521, occupying Oaxaca (Blanton et al., 1999).

The convent of Santo Domingo de Guzman was built in the 16th century by the Dominican Order (Urquiaga 2000). The Cathedral of Oaxaca, also called ‘Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción’, was built from 1553 to 1733. There were several periods of reconstruction in the history of the cathedral, for example in 1696, 1723, 1891 and 1999 (Casanova and Pino 2004).

The pre-Hispanic archaeological site of Mitla (about 45 km southeast of Oaxaca) is about 1800 years old and was first mentioned in the literature of the 16th century (García 2016; Bernal 1963).

The historical center of Oaxaca de Juárez is UNESCO world heritage site known for its cultural tradition and its history of art and architecture. Both the city center of Oaxaca and the archaeological site of Mitla were built with a great variety of volcanic tuff rocks (Fig. 1).

This study focusses on the deterioration behavior of the tuffs in both Colonial and pre-Hispanic architecture. A variety of tuff rocks have been tested regarding their petrography, pore space properties, water transport- and storage properties, mechanical properties and weathering behavior.54

Figure 1: Historical buildings in Oaxaca. a): Church of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, b): Oaxaca Cathedral, c): Archaeological site of Mitla (‘El Palacio’).