Aeromycological study in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

A study of airborne fungi was carried out in the architectural complex of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) during 2002, by using viable volumetric sampling methods. This resulted in a total of 35 identified taxa, of which the most abundant were: Alternaria, Aspergillus, Cladosporium and Penicillium. Sampling was completed with data from the outdoor atmosphere and swab samples in specific places. In general there were no statistically significant indoor/outdoor differences and in both cases the highest CFU m-3 were obtained during the spring-summer. Similar relatively low numbers of the same fungi were likewise detected at different points in the Cathedral nave, while up to nearly 6500 CFU m-3 were recorded in the Corticela Chapel. The study of intradiurnal levels carried out in the Cathedral nave reveals greater abundance of fungal concentrations at 13:00 h, the moment of massive influx of visitors in the Cathedral, with 406 CFU m-3 compared to the 380 CFU m-3 sampled at 9:00 h and the 350 CFU m-3 at 21:00 h. The whole investigation is the first study of the atmospheric fungal content of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.