Acoustics as a cultural heritage: The case of Orthodox churches and of the “Russian church” in Bari

Architecture of Orthodox churches changed very little in its history as a consequence of the strict adherence of liturgy and its related aspects, to the original canons. This has important implications on the acoustics that characterizes such places which is therefore very specific. The paper starts by considering the case of the Orthodox church of San Nicola (also known as “Russian church”) in Bari where an acoustic survey was carried out. Innovative measurement tools like microphone arrays were used, allowing the identification of direction of arrival of sound reflections and, consequently, the architectural elements that play a major role on the acoustics. Then, the results of a detailed literature research are used to put the specific case study into a broader context including a large number of Orthodox churches. Results point out the existence of a very specific relationship between acoustics and architecture, supporting the idea that the first must be considered as a cultural heritage as important as the latter.