Simplified Seismic Analyses of Ancient Churches in Matera’s Landscape

Nowadays, safety assessment under seismic loading of historical masonry buildings, such as ancient churches, is an actual and important topic due to the potential human and economic losses involved even for a partial collapse. Therefore, the prevention and mitigation of their seismic risk would result the best intervention for preserving in the future these monuments of inestimable value. To date, in literature many methods are available for evaluating the seismic vulnerability and the related risk. In particular, this study focuses on the first two simplified evaluation methods proposed by the current Italian directive containing the guide lines for assessment and reduction of cultural heritage seismic risk. The methods, having an increasing precision level, may be applied in sequence at a different scale for screening and identifying the present priorities, and for designing the required interventions. In this article, these methods are applied to five ancient masonry churches located within the UNESCO site of the “Sassi” of Matera (Italy), a seismic-prone area with moderate seismicity. Afterward, also a new simplified method is applied, in the form of fast appraisal method useful for preliminary ranking the seismic performances of the case studies at a territorial scale.