VISUALISATION - 
A TOOL FOR DOCUMENTATION AND INVESTIGATION OF HISTORICAL BUILDINGS 
Martin Dendler 
Landesdenkmalamt Baden-Württemberg, Référât 35 (Photogrammetrie) 
Moerikestrasse 20, D-70178 Stuttgart, Germany 
Phone +49-0711-1694602, eMail: M.Dendler@t-online.de 
KEY WORDS: Monastery Church of Salem/Germany, Stereophotogrammetry, 3-dimensional CAD-Model, Reconstruction, Visu 
alisation, Comparison of Architectural Style, Survey and Research of Buildings 
ABSTRACT 
Virtual 3-dimensional models of buildings are de 
signed on the basis of geometric data. During the 
documentation, research and reconstruction of histori 
cal buildings, these geometric data will be derived 
from already existing drawings, either by current or 
historical measurement. Further information may be 
found in other historical sources, for instance in art 
drawings and paintings or in descriptions of the object. 
This process will be described on the example of the 
monastery church of Salem. 
The church was built in the 13th century and has seen 
several changes during the last centuries, especially 
concerning the tower and the construction of the choir 
roof. These changes are described and visualized on 
the basis of detailed photogrammetrie documentation 
as well as various historical documents. 
These examples show how a visualisation project can 
be carried out by means of completely different data 
sources. It has to be discussed which expense will be 
necessary in terms of geometric accuracy on the one 
hand and in terms of the demands of documentation 
and research of buildings on the other hand. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
The former monastery and today's castle of Salem, 
situated near Lake Constance in Baden-Wuerttemberg, 
Germany, was founded in 1137 as a monastery of the 
Cistercian order and devolved into the property of the 
Kurfurst Carl Friedrich von Baden during the securali- 
sation in the year 1802. The castle park to date is 
largely well preserved and serves as the residence of 
today's owner, the Markgraf von Baden (Knapp, 
1998). 
The architectural history of the abbey in general and of 
the cloister church in particular, which we will have a 
closer look at in this article, is characterized by the 
development of the Cistercian order. The church 
building in its current state was built during a far- 
reaching renovation of the monastery at the end of the 
13th century. Its outward appearance seems to have 
stayed almost unchanged since this epoch apart from 
some minor details, at least that is the impression of 
today. But by regarding historical sources more 
closely we find that a modification changed the form 
ot the building in an enormous way. The early Cister 
cian rules for the construction of buildings strongly 
prohibited stonemade towers and led to the erection of 
wooden ridge turrets without any decoration (Braun- 
Fig. 1 : Stereorestitution of the facades; 
assembled to one single 3-dimensional model 
Proceedings 18 lh International Symposium CIPA 2001 
Potsdam (Germany), September 18 - 21, 2001