Base Isolation for large monumental buildings

Italy is one of the countries with the highest number of historical and monumental buildings. At the same time is a country of moderate/high seismic risk. Many of the Italian historical and monumental buildings are large masonry structures dating back to centuries ago, that can be highly vulnerable to earthquakes. One interesting approach for improving their seismic performance consists in seismic base isolation. This modern technique explicates its beneficial effects by adding a controlled source of damping and moving away the structure from the most energetic band of frequency of the soil motion. Dealing with base isolation of monumental buildings implies consideration for several peculiar, multidisciplinary, aspects. These are related to the age of these buildings, to the fact that they might have become part of larger built-up units, or they might have been built over previous buildings the remains of which can be themselves of interest for the cultural heritage. The aim of this work is first related to an evaluation of the main issues related to base isolation of large historical buildings. Subsequently, a tentative base isolation application is presented with reference to a prototypal case study, to better assess the practicality of base isolation when large historic buildings are concerned.