AN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAMMETRIC APPLICATION:
SURVEY OF THE CHURCH WITHIN SNAGOV MONASTERY
ROMANIA
Dr.eng. Alexandiu Gutu
Manager, TOFOCAD SRL, Romania
Commission No. V
The Church within Snagov Monastery - an
historical monument from the l4-th century-
requires some restoration works. Having
this aim in view, a survey has been carried
out both for its architecture and mural
paintings. Classical and semi-automatic
technologies carrying out this survey,
using digital photogrammetry within an in-
tegrated developing and drawing system are
presented in this paper.
Key Words: Analog, Analytical, Archaeolo-
gical, Architectural, Terrestrial
INTRODUCTION
Snagov Monastery is located on an isiand
in Snagov Lake at tne Noutn-East from Bu-
charest, at about a 50 km distance. An old
convent and a voivode's church, it was
also a Romanian orthodox cultural centre.
In the 14-th century, during the reign of
Dan I Voivode (1383-1386), it was mentioned
for the first time; further mentions were
made both in Mircea cel Bätrîn's documents
and in the 15-th century Chronicles re-
garding Vlad Tepes Voivode (1456-1462)
among its protectors.
Owing to its strategic position, and based
on some archaeological investigations that
island has been considered as a monachal
place beginning from the ll-th century.
During 1512-1517, in the reign of Neagoe
Basarab Voivode, the Church within Snagov
Monastery was re-built; in 1563, Petiu cel
Tinär Voivode together with his brothers
Radu and Mircea ordered the church inner
side painting.
In the days of Antim Ivireanu Abbot (1694-
1705) that monastery became an important
panorthodox centre, as many Romanian,Greek,
Slavonic and Arabic sacred books were
printed.
Snagov Monastery was also a prison, espe-
cially, for unfaithful boyards and even
some voivodes. Within the pronaos, there
are to be found nine tombs where the bo-
yards "beheaded" by Mircea Ciobanu, Ale-
xandru Mircea and Mihai Viteazu Voivodes
had been buried. Vlad Tepes, seen as the
church protector, according to the old
past chronicles, was buried in a tomb
within the naos.
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As all the orthodox churches,that one built
within Snagov Monastery has a cross-shaped
appearance, divided into three parts: pro-
naos, naos and altar.
THE BUILDING DESCRIPTION
The Pronaos is a former church porch walled
in among its pillars. Its inner vault is
supported by four octhogonal pillars using
both a circular arc leaned upon the exter-
nal wall and a pendentive system supporting
the square base of the tower cylinder with
a semi-spherical dome on its top.
The naos: A semi-cylindrical apse along the
transverse axial plane,one in the South and
the other in the North sides, and two win-
dows each are to be found in it. The hanging
10o0f is supported by four cylindrical pi-
lasters sustaining the arches; an axial bow
starts from the central part and ends into
the altar. The bows outside the pilasteris
are extending to the "proscomidia", in the
North, and "diaconicon" in the South. The
square tower cylinder base with a semi-
spherical dome on its top lies upon them.
The altar is divided into thiee apses, i.e.
the central apse called the altar, the Noi-
then one called "proscomidia", and the Sou-
then one called "diaconicon". In the Nor-
then and Southen apses, there is a cylin-
drical tower having a semi-spherical dome
on its top; it is supported by a square
base.
Inward the church, there arie mural paintings
from the 16-th century all over its walls.
Owing to the earthquakes and the bad weather
peelings, they must be repaired, as soon
as possible. The same thing must be said
about the church re-building, especially
the pronaos.
A PHOTOGRAMMETRIC SURVEY -
A PREREQUISITE CONDITION
Considering the state-of-art of the Church
within Snagov Monastery, as we have mentio-
ned above, its survey is absolutely required.
It is focussing on both its architecture
and mural paintings. The architectural suri-
vey allows to investigate the building it-
self, viewing to study the preservation and
restoration concerns, as well as, to iden-
tify and locate improvements to be done,
