Case study of Sainte-Marie Chapel, Fontaine Chaalis (France): Complementarity of different optical techniques

The abbey's church of Chaalis, in the North of Paris, was founded by Louis VI as a Cistercian monastery on 10th January 1137. In 2013, in the frame the European Commission's 7th Framework Program project CHARISMA [grant agreement no. 228330] the chapel was used as a practical case-study for application of the work done in a task devoted to best practices in historical buildings and monuments. In the chapel, three areas were identified as relevant. The first area was used to make an exercise on diagnosis of the different deterioration patterns. The second area was used to analyze a restored area. The third one was selected to test some hypotheses on the possibility of using the portable instruments to answer some questions related to the deterioration problems. To inspect this area, different tools were used: - Visible fluorescence under UV, - THz system, - Stimulated Infra-Red Thermography, SIRT - Digital Holographic Speckle Pattern Interferometry, DHSPI - Condition report by conservator-restorer. The complementarity and synergy offered by the profitable use of the different integrated tools is clearly shown in this practical exercise.