Strong damage or complete loss suffered by the cultural patrimony when subjected to considerable earthquake ground shaking has been occurring through the history of humanity. The occurrence of these unexpected and unavoidable events has demonstrated that ancient masonry towers are one of the most vulnerable structural types to suffer strong damage or collapse. There are certain relevant aspects determining the seismic vulnerability of towers in terms of behavior and failure mechanisms that differentiate these vertical structures from most of compact historical constructions. This is the first stage of an international scientific research between the University of Braunschweig and the University of Florence, aimed to develop a methodology to mitigate the seismic risk of ancient masonry towers located in seismic zones with the use of prestressing devices of smart materials. Therefore results quite important a deep understanding and identification of all the most important aspects that determine the seismic vulnerability of ancient masonry towers in terms of behavior and failure mechanisms. For achieving this, it is considered the relevant literature, observed damage after real earthquakes and mainly engineering experience.
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