ABSTRACT
The numerous and historical unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in Italy are frequently exposed to earthquakes, resulting in casualties as well as both cultural and economic losses. Observations of their performance following recent earthquakes have confirmed that URM buildings warrant special attention in regard to their seismic vulnerability and preservation. Almalgamated dataset and findings of damaged URM churches during the 2012 Northern Italy earthquakes are presented herein. The comparison between the numerous data available considering both earthquakes allows a clear overview of the earthquake effects on URM churches. The type of material used and the quality of the URM masonry construction greatly influenced the seismic behaviour of the surveyed structures. The seismic effects of considered structures also depended on the directionality of the seismic action, which must be considered case by case and is related to the out-of-plane and inplane behaviour of the URM elements.
