Comparison of Conservation and Repair Methods for Stone Arch Bridges in Spain and Japan

The study compares methods of conservation and repair for cultural heritage buildings in Japan and Spain. This paper focuses on arched stone bridges in both countries, with the Japanese case study ‘Reidaikyo’, located in Kumamoto Prefecture, and the Spanish case study ‘Villafranca del Cid’, located between the provinces of Aragon and Valencia. In each case, basic information, survey details and repair work details were collected. As there were many ‘case-specific differences’ between the two case studies, such as the agency in charge of the repair project, the state of damage and the scale of the repair work, comparisons were made taking these matters into account. As a result, there were commonalities in the survey method, but differences were found in survey areas, survey results and overall repair work contents. In looking at causes of these differences, other than ‘case-specific differences’, it was observed that for Reidaikyo, the repair work aimed to restore the bridge to its original appearance, whereas for Villafranca del Cid, the repairs tended to blend into their surroundings. These differences in fundamental repair policies are contributed to the differing approaches to conserving and repairing cultural heritage buildings between Japan and Spain.