Assessment of the St. Giusta Church in Bazzano after the L’Aquila earthquake on April 6, 2009

On April 6th 2009 an earthquake with a moment magnitude of 6.3 Mw hit the centre of Italy and especially the historical city of L’Aquila, causing the collapse of many buildings both modern and historic. An overview of the historical cultural heritage showed that the constructions built properly many centuries ago, although the strong seismic events of the past, did not collapse during this last event. It is the case of St. Giusta church in Bazzano, built in the 13th cent and one of the most beautiful churches of the area. St. Giusta, already hit by different historic seismic events, had serious damages during this last earthquake to the facade, with the collapse of the bell tower, to the columns and to the pillars. The paper will report the first investigation of damages carried out soon after the earthquake, the individuation of the mechanisms of failure and of their causes, the emergency provisional structures realized by the fire brigade and the characterisation of the masonry quality through non-destructive tests (flat-jack, sonic, radar and thermography).