The seismic response of five cultural heritage towers erected between the 10th and 19th century AD are investigated herein. Firstly, their architectural and modal characteristics were studied in the light of seismic events that hit the monuments. There exist several historical reports of strong earthquakes, as well as damaged structures and collapses. The limit analysis is adopted to examine the post-elastic behavior of the towers up to collapse due to out-of-plane failure. Recurrent damage modes were collected from recent earthquakes and a classification of four possible collapse mechanisms in towers and slender masonry structures is here proposed: overturning, separation of perpendicular walls, diagonal cracking, and dislocation of the belfry. A thorough examination of the towers under investigation verified the proposed damage classification. The capacity curves were derived combining the capacity curves of each of the collapse mechanisms. Damage thresholds were defined on these curves in correspondence with damage states. The studied group of structures is representative of a wider typology. A statistical approach was adopted to describe damage with seismic intensity, and vulnerability curves were generated. The results of this study will improve the understanding of the performance and the collapse mechanisms of slender masonry structures under seismic loading and provide a characterization of seismic vulnerability for the studied cultural heritage types of towers.
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