Study of the State of Conservation and the Building Materials Used in Defensive Constructions in South-Eastern Spain: The Example of Mula Castle in Murcia

ABSTRACT

In 1985 many mediaeval fortifications were classified as cultural heritage assets by the Spanish Historic Heritage Act, which imposed an obligation to preserve them from decay. Unfortunately, this legal mandate is often difficult to fulfil in practice due to insufficient knowledge of the building materials and techniques used in these constructions, which makes it impossible to plan proper restoration work. Another problem is that these fortifications are often difficult to access, which is one of the reasons why little research has been done on them.

Given that the degree of decay suffered by a building material is closely related to the environmental conditions and the natural risks to which it is exposed, as well as to the intrinsic features of the material itself, the characterization of the building materials used in rammed-earth constructions is considered a crucial aspect to implement compatible protective actions. With this in mind, we present the study of the conservation state of one of the 250 fortifications found in south-eastern Spain: the Velez castle, in the town of Mula (Murcia). The characterization of four representative samples of rammed-earth and mortars using X-ray diffraction and optical microscopy is also presented here.

KEYWORDS:

• Deterioration
• earthen materials
• materials characterization
• medieval fortifications
• mortars
• South Spain

Acknowledgments

This study is part of the project PREFORTI (BIA2015 69938-R) entitled “Metodología sostenible de conservación y mantenimiento de fortificaciones medievales de tierra del sudeste de la Península Ibérica. Diagnóstico y prevención ante riesgos naturales y antrópicos” (Sustainable methodology for the conservation and maintenance of mediaeval rammed-earth fortifications in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula) financed by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (Spanish National Research Agency) and the European Regional Development Fund. Part of this research was financed by the research contract “Juan de la Cierva Incorporación” (IJCI-2015-23474) and by the MAT2016-75889-R project run by the Spanish Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The laboratory analyses were conducted by the company Tesela Materiales, Innovación y Patrimonio SL (Granada). Authors thank Nigel Washington for his support during the translation of the text.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Competitiveness [IJCI-2015-23474,MAT2016-75889-R];Spanish National Research Agency and European Regional Development Fund [BIA2015 69938-R].