ABSTRACT

Refers to the consolidation of the vaults of the fourteenth-century palace Trinci in Foligno, which allowed the preservation of the structures turned by the violence of Umbria-Marche earthquake of 1997. After this positive experience, the question arises: do we must always consolidate vaults with tapes of composite to ensure conservation and security? In this paper, we want to reflect and focus attention on the excessive and uncritical application of composite materials for the consolidation of vaulted structures. The palace was the residence of the Trinci papal vicar, whose Lordship made Foligno a small capital extended on the south of Umbria, from 1313 to 1439. Federico Zeri wrote on the building in 1984, before the impressive recovery monument lasted over ten years, the following sentences: "that will not happen again for it (note the church of San Domenico) the scandal of abandonment faced by another Foligno’ monument of (this of importance, regional or Italian, but even European) as is the Palazzo Trinci. It would take a book to list the deplorable conditions in which this mansion, with its frescoes incomparable choice of subject, with its apartments still provided the original decoration, with its problems of iconography noble, for which there is no a proper comparison across Europe. " This paper describes with images and graphics, the condition at 1985 before reinforcing, often badly damaged by earthquakes and prior to a major collapse of the foundation angle. It subsequently passes to analyze the consolidation carried out with techniques philologically eligible for the historical built, without the use of composites today very pushed by the industry. Noting that there wasn’t damage after the earthquake of September 1997 that struck Umbria and the Marches, I have to conclude that if we had used composite materials we would have certainly given to the latter on the excellent seismic response of the consolidated building.

Keywords: vaults, structural restoration, composite materials, historic buildings