Orvieto Cathedral: ENEA technologies for the footings of the 12 Apostles and 4 Patron Saints
5/12/2019
Returning the statues of the twelve Apostles and of Patron Saints to the Cathedral of Orvieto (after 120 years’ absence) was also made possible by certain innovative technological solutions implemented to ensure seismic safety.
According to Gerardo De Canio, the ENEA researcher who oversaw the work, “The statues’ footings have been reconstructed with fragments of the original materials with the addition of solutions to improve their seismic behaviour.” “Furthermore,” he added, “we performed interventions to reduce the seismic mass, anchoring the pillars to the floor and the flush positioning of the base plinth of the pillars.”
The project to return the statues to their Cathedral home was preceded by a phase of extensive structural control of the architectural elements of the Cathedral, as well as consolidation and other actions to enhance seismic behaviour. In addition to ‘passive’ anti-seismic devices that maximize seismic isolation – as already used by ENEA for the Riace Bronzes (also known as the Riace Warriors) – semi-passive technologies were also used in Orvieto, that is to say solutions able to release the pedestal and activate its anti-seismic function at the very first sign of an earthquake. “Another difference is the materials used: steel in Orvieto and marble for the Riace Bronzes, but both of the ‘double pendulum’ type, i.e. consisting of two spherical devices that, by rolling, maximize seismic isolation.” For the Duomo of Orvieto, two directions are noted for the design solutions:
plan for anti-seismic footings for the statues of the Annunciation (which “came home” to the Cathedral in March); plan for reconstruction and anti-seismic devices for the footings of the statues of the twelve Apostles and of the four Patron Saints. - planning interventions to improve the seismic behaviour of the Cathedral’s structural macro-elements.
For further information:
Gerardo De Canio, ENEA - Laboratorio “Tecnologie per la Dinamica delle Strutture e la Prevenzione del rischio sismico e idrogeologico”(“Technologies for the Dynamics of Structure and Seismic and Hydrogeological Risk Prevention” laboratory), gerardo.decanio@enea.it