THREE-DIMENSIONAL RELIEF AND MATERIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TEMPIO-MASSERIA DEL GIGANTE IN CUMAE
The following paper describes the work originated from a University exercise drill, made during the Restoration Lab of the architecture Department of the Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. It shows the results of a relief and metric characterisation campaign of the ‘Masseria del Gigante' (Giant’s Farmhouse) Temple, in Cumae, in the Naples province. This is a rural building from the XVIII century, built and extended by incorporating the rests of the cell of an ancient temple from the Flavian Age, located at the eastern border of Cumae lower city’s Foro, that was called “del Gigante” (of the Giant), because a large Jupiter’s bust was found in its proximities. Well known in the world of antiquarian dealers, it was pictured in many drawings and landscape paintings since the end of the XVII century and the first half of the XVIII, the Masseria Temple taken into exam has been acquired by the public domain only at the end of the 1990, so only after this period the first archaeological investigations were made. Afterwards, between 1996 and 2002, conspicuous restoration and securing works were made. Today the structure is used as a temporary deposit for archaeological findings and it’s among the buildings included in a wider restoration and re-functionalization project that has been proposed by the Campi Flegrei Archaeological Park and that is now about to start. The following research was developed from the structure’s relief made with photo-modelling techniques and it aimed to identify the construction methodologies and the degrading phenomena in place, with special regards to the identification of the ancient parts of the Temple, of those pertaining the conversion in a farmhouse and, lastly,, those realised during the aforementioned restoration works.