SEISMIC PERFORMANCE OF MASONRY POINTED VAULTS – CASE STUDY OF ST. ANTHONY CHURCH IN BARBAN, ISTRIA

More than 140 churches with medieval wall paintings have been preserved in Istria, which are an essential part of Istrian cultural identity, and classify Istria as the region with the greatest density of this type of cultural heritage. In the last 25 years considerable effort has been put into the preservation and conservation of the wall paintings, but also in the restoration of the churches from the structural point of view. The most significant adverse effects on the frescoes are capillary humidity and cracks that occur as a result of the ground settlement. In this paper we will focus on small single-nave churches with pointed barrel vaults, which are characteristic for the Gothic period. As a case study, the seismic capacity of the church of St. Anthony in Barban will be studied. The interior of the church was entirely painted in the early 15th century. The church has a simple architecture: a rectangular ground plan, roof covered with slate tiles and a bell gable present at the front façade. The walls are built of regular stone blocks in lime mortar. We present results of the numerical analysis of the pointed vault due to seismic actions. The admissible failure mechanisms related to formation of plastic hinges are examined.