Monitoring Medieval Structures in Pavia

The ancient town of Pavia was seized with panic on the 17th March 1989, when the 900 year old Civic Tower suddenly collapsed without warning. That alarming collapse could have been due to soil subsidence or strength deterioration by environmental actions, so that similar actions could be dangerous for other ancient buildings, among them several extremely slender towers standing since the Middle Ages. In order to assess the stability of the 6 tall towers still standing in the center of Pavia, it was therefore necessary to investigate the quality of the masonry and evaluate its strength. Coring of the walls and television endoscopy established that the construction technique was the same as for the collapsed Civic Tower. Therefore, the masonry was attributed the same strength obtained by the experimental tests on the blocks of the Civic Tower.