Instrumental Analytical Techniques Applied to Old Gate Tower from Corvins’ Castle

Nowadays, a better understanding of the factors (including environmental) that influence the degradation of materials from different buildings and monuments, is absolutely necessary. In this paper some analytical techniques, as Fourier Transformed IR Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), optical microscopy (OM) and SEM-EDS, have been used for evaluation the structure and chemical composition and the characterization of the degradation products, causes and mechanisms of disintegration / degradation of materials and aging processes. Few samples from the Old Gate Tower of the Corvins’Castle, Hunedoara, have been collected and subjected to be analysed and fruitful conclusions have been obtained referring to the raw materials provenance and weathering / deterioration processes which they supported. Similar minerals with those identified at the other towers from Corvins’Castle have been evidenced: quartz, calcite and dolomite, being majority, and additional apatite minerals. Also, ion chromatography could be used to identify the presence of different ions, responsible for the accelerated process of the monument’s walls.