"La Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio. La storia, le attività, il terremoto del 2009, gli studi per la ricostruzione.''

The Basilica di Santa Maria di Collemaggio, founded on 1287, is an important monument of L’Aquila. The only center of papal coronation outside Rome, in the Basilica is celebrated yearly a jubilee for the presence of the first Holy Door. The austere and mighty facade summarizes the excellence in design, proportions and materials, placing the monument among the greatest architectural masterpieces of the Italian Romanesque. The structural system, based on three naves, has undergone delicate works over the centuries also due to disastrous earthquakes (1471, 1703, 1915, 2009). In the last decades, the historical and architectural importance and the seismicity of the region have stimulated theoretical and experimental research by University of L'Aquila on historical-constructive and methodological-modeling aspects with the aim of characterizing the materials and the overall behavior of the monument. The severe damages caused by the 2009 earthquake, with collapses in the area of the transept, have relaunched these research activities, presented at the international level, oriented to the interpretation of the seismic behavior and to the definition of reliable structural models, also through a continuous monitoring of the response. Today these studies are of great importance to define a sustainable reconstruction intervention, in the framework of broad multidisciplinary collaboration, open to the use of innovative technologies and accompanied by valuable training of young scholars.