Church of San Giuliano di Puglia: Seismic repair and upgrading

The notorious October-31-2002 earthquake threatened the collapse of the church of San Giuliano di Puglia (Campobasso, Italy). This paper describes the main points of the repair and seismic retrofitting of the town church, San Giuliano Martire. The seismic retrofitting had to meet the new Italian seismic code that was issued immediately after this earthquake (seismic upgrading). The structural rehabilitation was limited because of the requirements to stay true to the original aspect (conservation of the bare-surface stone masonry, without plaster). To this end, the design considered recent scientific advancements and developed innovative methods, rather than just referring to technical practice.
The rehabilitation work, in particular the technical innovation, has been tested by two earthquakes, both of them with an epicenter within close proximity to the building. The first one struck in 2007, with a magnitude of 3.1; the second one in 2011, with a magnitude of 3.7 and a Peak Ground Acceleration of 0.19⋅g. Whilst the sacral furniture resting on the ground suffered from significant damage, none of the earthquakes caused any structural damage to the building. In particular, no cracks opened in the masonry structures. The PGA and seismic forces of the 2011-earthquake were 1.7 and 2.5 times greater than the values prescribed by the present Italian code for the damage limitation and no-collapse requirements, respectively. This proves the effectiveness of applying post-tensioned bonded tendons to masonry structures, in order to significantly increase both the stiffness and the lateral load-carrying capacity of a masonry building.