La messa in sicurezza dei beni monumentali a seguito dell’evento sismico del 30 ottobre 2016: il caso di Norcia

The architectural heritage of Central Italy has been severely damaged by the August-October 2016 earthquakes. The historical centre of the City of Norcia was one of the areas most affected by this seismic event, therefore, right after the magnitude 6.5 earthquake of October 30th, emergency structural interventions have been carried out to preserve two of the main monuments of the town: the Civic Tower and the Cathedral of Santa Maria Argentea. The emergency interventions have been commissioned by the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio dell’Umbria. Temporary structural safety measures have been defined to safeguard the monuments from further collapses and damages in order to maintain the architectural elements that survived from the strong seismic events and to restore public access to the roads adjacent to the damaged monuments waiting for the beginning of the definitive restoration and seismic retrofitting works. The emergency interventions, carried out by the National Fire Corps, have been designed in phases in order to guarantee the operators safety at every stage of the work. This paper is focused on the design criteria and the operational phases that led to the definition and realization of the temporary safety interventions for the two monuments.