Abstract:
Alentejo religious buildings reflect undoubtedly the history and character of this
southern Portugal region. These buildings conservation requires a deep knowledge of
their masonry’s and renders’ lime mortars, to evaluate correctly their state of
conservation, to avoid progression of pathological situations and to plan efficient
interventions, with repair and substitution materials with similar characteristics. In this
article we present a synthesis of the main results obtained in the mortars characterization
of religious buildings from Alentejo, which include Évora and Elvas Cathedrals, Mértola
Mosque and the church of Amieira do Tejo. For each monument, several samples were
collected from different sites and a set of tests was carried out, including chemical,
mineralogical and microstructural, as well as physical and mechanical tests. The tested
mortars correspond to different phases of construction and interventions on the
buildings, comprising mainly origin periods from the 12th to the 18th century; hence
exhibited significant differences in composition and in application techniques. The
obtained results of composition have given important information about the provenance
of the materials used, including binder and sand types, and also about decay products
and their correlation with the mortar’s conservation state, which gave important clues on the repair strategy to adopt.
