The construction techniques in the post 1703 reconstruction of L’Aquila. The Ardinghelli, Cappa and Camponeschi palaces in the quarter of Santa Maria Paganica
The memory illustrates the anti-seismic construction technique developed for the reconstruction of
L’Aquila, after the great earthquakes of the early eighteenth century.
The technique was clearly recognised during the damage survey in the aftermath of the 2009 earthquake
thanks to the unexpected performance of many buildings in which the systematic presence of anti-seismic devices more effective than those usually found in seismic regions was evident.
A research was started on that technique aiming at reconstructing its general features, at first with an
expeditious survey on several historic centres hit by the earthquake and later on by a detailed study
of an entire block in L’Aquila containing the Ardinghelli, Cappa and Camponeschi palaces.
The results of the research – in terms of both the overall configuration of the architectural organism and
specific technical solutions – compose an outline of the building methods that were introduced, with an
explicit anti-seismic intention, for the reconstruction in the aftermath of the 1703 L’Aquila earthquake
and were used continuously until the end of the nineteenth century.