The spiritual architecture of Maqamat: From the digitisation of Architectural Heritage sites to the enhancement of cultural memory through virtual narratives

Abstract

The study of Architectural Heritage in “clustered territories”, subjected to social, religious and political compression, identifies sites as an ecosystem of landmarks connected by cultural permanence and spirituality. The maqam (pl. maqamat) identifies an architectural typology of “shrine” in the Levant dedicated to prophets, sheiks and saints across Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths. It developed as an isolated landmark, on hilltops or desert lands, as a single-chamber structure with a dome, on holy tombs or other devotional places. From the symbolic domed module, it assumed more complex configurations, linked to historical and social factors of territorial change. As “stations” along territorial routes, they linked cultural factors, intangible heritage and spiritual practices in the legacy of local communities. The research aims to an updated mapping action of preserved maqamat, focusing on the route of Abraham’s prophets and recovering memory and heritage values from the historical Palestinian tradition. Through digital survey strategies, compared to bibliographical references, the digitisation of maqamat sites and design patterns into georeferenced 3D models allows for a double-scale analysis, at territorial and architectural levels. The collection of interviews and oral stories is processed to enrich the visuality of digital 3D data, enabling a key component of storytelling to recover authentic and untold memories from the community legacy. The development of a digital narrative platform supports the communication and widespread knowledge of the heritage typology, evoking introspection and spiritual continuity, and launches a call for crowd-sourcing in the monitoring and mapping of maqamat sites with the contribution of civil society.