First results of the monitoring of the façade damage mechanism of the “Santa Maria in Via” Church in Camerino following the 2016 Central Italy Earthquake

The Italian architectural heritage is characterized by a very high seismic vulnerability, as demonstrated by damage occurred to buildings and churches following the main earthquakes of the last two decades. With reference to churches, even when total or partial collapses did not occur, damage mechanisms often activated, reducing the overall safety of the constructions. In order to prevent the evolution of damage, many immediate interventions and securing systems were installed and the need of controlling the evolution of the church damage recently become an issue of paramount importance. In this paper, the first results of the monitoring of the façade damage mechanism of the Santa Maria in Via church in Camerino (Central Italy) are reported and discussed. The church was strongly damaged after the Central Italy 2016 earthquake and consequently, an impressive securing system was built in order to prevent the damage evolution and to preserve the elements of architectural value. A preliminary identification of the dynamics of the whole church is performed through ambient vibration tests to get a benchmark through which possible evolutions in time of the modal parameters could be identified. Data herein presented refer to the first month of monitoring and to a small set of sensors already installed, including two accelerometers and two thermocouples positioned inside and outside the church. The complete dynamic monitoring system, which will allow to also capture variations of the system dynamics due to environmental conditions, is also described. The latter will be operative within the first months of the year 2021.