Historical review of masonry arches and vaults. Trends in Historic Preservation and the Relevance of Understanding Curved Masonry Structures

This work took origin from the inspiring didactic teaching experienced during a summer school course organized in the huge context of Como Lake. The main task, addressed to the study of masonry vaults, gave the possibility to open a wide reflection on building techniques and the differences characterizing the construction traditions diffused in peculiar areas. Como Lake, well-known for the various examples of medieval architectures considered to be a fundamental step for the further diffusion of the Romanesque style, becomes an interesting study field for observing the evolution of building techniques respect to its surroundings, considering the basin of the lake, the near valleys (Intelvi and Valtellina), and the context of Milan, the main town of the region and the influences that it had on the development of the building traditions in this restricted area. The carried-out review shows an optimization process, in which the builders learned how to select natural stones according to the needs of a high strength or low weight.