Collapse mechanisms due to earthquake in the structural typologies of historic constructions: The case of Mirandola

During the seismic event of May 2012 in the Emilia-Romagna Region (Italy), several cultural heritage structures collapsed or were severely damaged. This paper gives a description of the damage/collapse mechanisms observed on some of these buildings. The Church of Gesù, the City Hall and the tower of the Cathedral in Mirandola (MO) were analyzed. In particular, this article focuses on the behavior analysis of a church, a palace and a bell-tower, mainly masonry construction, that are the most widespread types of protected monuments proposed in the Italian code as simplified models for the verifications on the entire cultural heritage of a prior assessment of the seismic risk. The survey permitted to detect the most significant damage, mainly related to the cracks of the masonry and to understand the different collapse mechanisms.