THE PETR IVANOVICH SEVASTIANOV’S 19TH CENTURY HOLY MT ATHOS PLANS EMBEDDED IN A MODERN DIGITAL 3-D LOCAL CARTOGRAPHIC ENVIRONM

THE PETR IVANOVICH SEVASTIANOV’S 19TH CENTURY HOLY MT ATHOS PLANS EMBEDDED IN A MODERN DIGITAL 3-D LOCAL CARTOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENT

E.P. Ploutoglou, M. Pazarli, Ch. Boutoura

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Faculty of Surveying Engineering, Thessaloniki, Greece

plouto@topo.auth.gr

Petr Ivanovich Sevastianov, the known Russian 19^th century art collector, focused his interests, among other things, to the localization, the documentation and the representation of sites and monuments of Holy Mt Athos, during his well organized campaigns in this famous pluri-centenarian monastic community of Orthodox Christianity. Among his activities there was the surveying of monasteries and its surroundings, the plans of which is now in the Moscow State Library (MSL). In 2002, on the occasion of the first year anniversary from the establishment of the Mt Athos Map Library and the relevant publication of the book, in Greek, on Mt Athos cartographic representations (Mt Athos Metamorphoses on Maps) the MSL gave the permission to the delegated Mt Athos monks to use the images of the seven preserved Sevastianov’s plans, representing with aesthetic skills some of the monasteries and Mt Athos landscapes. In this research work, carried out for the first time on these seven plans, after having them placed in the general context of Petr Ivanovich’s two campaigns in the Athonian peninsula, a meticulous digital study is designed and implemented, concerning the geometric precision of the plans and their thematic representation plenitude, with respect to the actual data which are available from modern relevant surveys and representations. The Sevastianov’s plans are digitally embedded into three-dimensional modern representations which allow the study not only of the quality of the plans as far the geometry and their content are concerned, but also of the changes caused by the passing of time and the monastic activities during the years. The digital 3-D process developed for this study, including also research on simulations of solar shading, aims also at strategies which could be properly used in promoting not only the scientific value but also the artistic uniqueness Sevastianov’s precious representations of Mt Athos, recalling thus the attention of the general public on such types of cartographic heritage.