Gothic churches in Paris. St Gervais et St Protais. Image matching 3D reconstruction to understand geometry vault systems.

This paper is part of a research about ribbed vaults systems in French Gothic Cathedrals. Our goal is to compare some different gothic cathedrals to understand the complex geometry of the ribbed vaults. The survey isn't the main objective but it is the way to verify the theoretical hypotheses about geometric configuration of the flamboyant churches in Paris. The survey method's choice generally depends on the goal; in this case we had to study many churches in a short time, so we chose 3D reconstruction method based on image dense stereo matching. This method allowed us to obtain the necessary information to our study without bringing special equipment, such as the laser scanner. The goal of this paper is to test image matching 3D reconstruction method in relation to some particular study cases and to show the benefits and the troubles. From a methodological point of view this is our workflow: - theoretical study about geometrical configuration of rib vault systems; - 3D model based on theoretical hypothesis about geometric definition of the vaults' form; - 3D model based on image matching 3D reconstruction methods; - comparison between 3D theoretical model and 3D model based on image matching;