Mount Athos: Restoration of an Almost Extinct Type of 18th–19th C. UNESCO Masonry OX Stable

Abstract

The present paper serves the purpose of presenting an extinct type of 18th–19th century masonry building, that of an ox-stable, situated in one of Europe’s most secluded areas: The Holy Monastery of Pantokrator in Mount Athos Peninsula. Architectural drawings and surveying plots of its current state can serve as a record and reference of this UNESCO site for scholars. Adding to that, an elaborated proposal for the reuse of the building is presented together with technical drawings, which were approved by Greece’s Central Archeological Council. The masonry rectangular building is founded on natural rock with masonry pillar footings of different heights. Hence, the elevation irregularity and the different elevations of the footings of the structure present an additional challenge for the structural analysis. Structural analysis with a finite element (FE) model of the restored structure was executed with SAP2000 software. Performing lateral force and response spectrum analyses, stresses and deformations at critical points of the structure were calculated. Comparing a set of simplifying structural checks with the elastic FE analysis performed, it was concluded that the proposed design is effective in improving the earthquake performance of the structure.