San Placido Calonerò

Knowing

The San Placido Calonerò complex stands near Messina, on the eastern coast of Sicily. Built as a castle of the Vinciguerra family, it became a Benedictine abbey in the 14th century. Its two cloisters combine Renaissance features with an older medieval core.

The 1908 Messina earthquake damaged the complex, which was then altered: a whole storey was reduced in height and some monumental entrances were dismantled.

Diagnosis

The cloisters originally had brick cross vaults gently joined to Renaissance columns with Ionic capitals: a system that had worked well for about 500 years.

In the mid-1990s an invasive strengthening intervention altered both cloisters, adding a reinforced concrete layer on the vaults connected to the brickwork by transverse steel connectors. Since then the cloisters have shown structural problems: the columns are damaged because they carry higher loads than before, and the arches are now propped.

Modelling

The study reproduced a typical cloister cell with a refined nonlinear finite element model in two configurations: before and after the 1990s intervention. The comparison assesses the new load conditions on the columns and arches.

Outcome

A recent intervention can damage what had stood for five centuries.

The nonlinear model compares the original behaviour of the cell with its behaviour after strengthening, making the effect of the concrete slab on column loads measurable. It is the basis for identifying solutions that limit further damage and respect the original design of the cloisters.