<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> In July 2017, the system of Bergamo City Walls was registered in the UNESCO World Heritage List, together with other Venetian fortresses in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro. This important historical document needs continuous care and caution in order to be preserved complete, despite the continuous atmospheric and anthropic attacks, giving rise to dangerous deterioration processes on the artefact. The UAV photogrammetry is a suitable surveying method for such an extended system, able to collect all the geometrical, material and deterioration information needed for an effective maintenance program, also quick enough to allow for a repeated monitoring of the entire wall circuit. This paper presents the UAV survey campaign planned, and partially already completed, in order to test the methodological choices and solve all the operational difficulties to use drones in an urban environment, mainly because short distance shooting of nearly vertical surfaces was required.</p>

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The historical and cultural relevance of the City Walls built by the ‘Serenissima’ Republic of Venice in the second half of 16th century was recognized in 2017 by the insertion of Bergamo, together with other Venetian Fortresses in Italy, Croatia and Montenegro, in the World Heritage List of UNESCO as transnational site. In the framework of the nomination to the WHL, the City Council together with the University of Bergamo started a campaign of studies and surveys aimed to prepare a conservation planning. The goal of this plan is to assure a constant monitoring of this artwork, so that a strict routine of controls, cleaning and small strengthening works would prevent more relevant interventions, which could corrupt the material integrity of the building.</p><p>This paper delineates the methodological and operational workflow applied to the preparation of the maintenance plan, now in progress, for the Venetian City Walls of Bergamo, where the photogrammetric survey by means of UAV plays an important role. The different working phases, the adopted instrumentation, the difficulties encountered and the choices made are described, and some case studies are also illustrated that represent well the typical problems encountered for the conservation of the Walls.</p>

Abstract. The Palazzo dell’Ateneo is an impressive neoclassical building situated between the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore and the cathedral of Sant’Alessandro, in the heart of the upper city of Bergamo. Erected to house the Ateneo di Scienze Lettere ed Arti – an important cultural institution founded by Napoleonic decree on 25 December 1810 – it stands on a large medieval cistern, the so-called Fontanone, partly underground. After many years of inactivity, the monument was restored at the end of the last century as a venue for temporary exhibits and public events. The University of Bergamo, on the occasion of the “Bergamo and Brescia: Italian Capital of Culture 2023”, has launched a project to improve the knowledge of the edifice. A campaign of 3D surveys and diagnostic tests aimed at both restoring the real geometries to understand its evolutionary phases and historical stratifications, and at evaluating the state of health and the structural criticalities affecting the ancient construction. Based on this case study, this paper aims at debating the concept of survey and at underlining the fundamental role of the metric-material investigation within the knowledge process aimed at establishment of the conservation project. This is today an important issue because, due to the increasing simplification of instruments and software and the reduction of costs, the role of the surveyor is very often considered marginal. In fact, it is increasingly misunderstood that the machine operates autonomously and automatically and therefore does not need to be taught by trained and competent professionals. A contradictory situation as the quality of the documents and of the restitutions of the survey does not improve with technological progress but, on the contrary, becomes increasingly poor due to the improvisation and the lack of solid cultural and scientific background.

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<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The church dedicated to Sant'Andrea (St. Andrew) in <q>Porta Dipinta</q> street in Bergamo city is a treasure that keep inside it a rich heritage of great historical and cultural value, both from the architectural and from the artistic point of view. Lacking of the façade (left unfinished), it is often neglected, despite being on the main road leading to the old town from <q>Sant'Agostino</q> Gate. The approach to an historical building like this requires a multi-disciplinary integration, in order to join the technical competence of engineering sciences to the sensitivity of human and fine arts sciences. For a better understanding of the structural performances of the building, historical research, measurement survey, material and decay condition study have to complement each other.</p>

Abstract. The restoration of the small cloister of the former monastery of Sant’Agostino, located in the upper town of Bergamo is the last act of the redevelopment of this important monumental site. During the work, several graves were found underground. The stone slabs that covered them show fragments of epigraphs allowing to date the structures for a period from the 14th to the 15th centuries which needed to be deepened. A knowledge project, specifically intended for the interpretation of the inscriptions was then initiated. To this end, an experiment was carried out, aiming to compare RTI photography and digital photogrammetry combined with the use of grazing light.

Resiliency in concrete infrastructures has become an important issue. Adequate conservation/maintenance plans are essential to ensure their lifespan and preserve their value. Monitoring processes to assess their condition is an essential prerequisite which may benefit from cameras and UAVs. This paper focuses on the experience taken on Nembro arch bridge.

Abstract. The creation of three-dimensional models for the cataloguing and documentation of cultural heritage is today an emerging need in the cultural sphere and, above all, for museums. The cultural heritage is still catalogued and documented based on descriptive files assorted of photographic images which, however, fail to outline its spatial richness, possible only through the use of 3D artefacts. The essay aims to propose a methodology of digitalization by low-cost and easy-to-use systems, to be employed even by non-expert survey and photogrammetry’s operators. The case study of the statue of San Nicola da Tolentino, preserved at the Sant’Agostino complex in Bergamo, offered the possibility of a comparison between 3D models acquired with different digitalization tools (professional/action/amateur cameras and smartphone) and processed by several image-based 3D Reconstruction software and methods.