Repair and Maintenance of Historical Buildings of Cyprus Made of Natural Building Stones

Cyprus is the third biggest Island located at Mediterrenean Sea. It is located between three continents; Europe, Asia and Africa. Because of its’ geogrophical importance lots of empires ruled Cyprus accross the centuries. Therefore, Island has huge cultural heritage as well as historical monuments. In this study conservation works of Archangelos Micheal Church in Yeni Erenköy investigated detailly. During conservation projects of historical monuments, new natural stones that are going to be used instead of missing or damaged ones, should have similar characteristics with them. Information about these original natural stones are very limited. In this study, samples are collected from new and old parts of Archangelos Michael Church in Yeni Erenköy and Sourp Magar Monastery in Alevkayası to determine their properties by experiments. From the results of experiments, stones at new part of Archangeos Michael Church (Group Y) have the highest coefficient of water absorption by capilarity (C) and the highest water absorption capacity (Ab) at atmospheric pressure by 351,85 g/m2 .s0.5 and 19,74% respectively. Stones of Group Y also have the highest open porosity and total porosity values (29,59% and 39,29%). In addition, stones at old part of Archangelos Michael Church (Group E) have the highest uniaxial compressive strength (R) and pulse velocity values by 16,27 MPa and 3,31 km/sec respectively. Stones at Sourp Magar Monastery in Alevkayası (Group A) have the highest real density and specific gravity values (2732 kg/m3 and 2,75). Also, stones at Sourp Magar Monastery are the most resistive group against to salt crystallization. Keywords: Historical monuments, natural stones, conservation works, porosity, water absorption, compressive strength, Archangelos Michael Church