The Dome of the Colegio del Cardenal in Monforte de Lemos (Spain)

The aim of this paper is to study three aspects of the extradosed ashlar dome of the Colegio del Cardenal: its geometry, construction and stability. The Colegio was built between 1593 and 1616, and it is considered an “offspring” of the Monastery of El Escorial. The original drawings have been lost, but a historic document with a thorough description of the work has survived. The geometrical part covers an accurate geometrical survey, a metrological study, hypotheses of geometrical patterns, and a comparison with the proportions of other domes. The construction part deals with the quartering and the building procedures described in the historic document. Finally, the third part of the study focuses on the stability, over which there is some safety concern, as the building was damaged by the Lisbon earthquake in 1755.