The cross-vault system of the Inner City Parish Church of Budapest was the subject
of numerous scientific works so far. In our present article, we aimed to supplement
the information known about the vaults by providing exact geometric data gathered
via laser scanning. Based on this data, we attempted to filter out common characteristics
of the individual vaults, regarding the geometry of their ribs, their webs and the
positions of their keystones. As a result, we proved that the cross vaults composing
the system cannot be hallmarked as the remains of a given building period, and even
within a given cross vault, more building periods can appear. Combining the results
of the different geometric analyses, we concluded six distinct scenarios concerning
the relative periodisation of the elements composing the cross-vault system, complemented
by the evaluation of these. Thus, in the present article, we give an example of how
to use point cloud-based building survey techniques to approach the questions of a
given building’s relative periodisations.
