The church of San Pablo (Valladolid, Spain). The selection of the recording techniques: appropriateness, suitability and effectiveness for the documentation of a cultural heritage project

Abstract

After almost five years of studies and works carried out to restore the façade of San Pablo in Valladolid (Spain), this paper aims at promoting a critical evaluation of these works in order to analyze the selection of the recording techniques used before, during and immediately after the development of the preliminary studies and the conservation works. During the restoration process the survey was continuously implemented, collecting new data and using different techniques in order to provide the kind of information requested by a multidisciplinary team of professionals with completely different needs. At the same time this project has had the exceptional feature of exposing to the public the development of the conservation works in real time through a lift platform which entailed the obligation of informing everyday through effective and understandable means about how and where the works were being carried out at the façade. In these terms, this paper will try to bring the attention to the difficulties found in choosing the most suitable, effective and appropriate recording technique for different and specific conservation and communication purposes, searching for a good relation between accuracy, cost, time and efficiency within the whole cultural project.