2nd Croatian Conference on Earthquake Engineering 2CroCEE

In Istria there are more than 130 churches with preserved medieval mural paintings, 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 mural 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, since they were often built on an elevated plateau.
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 church is originating from the 14th century and is inscribed in the Croatian Register of Cultural Properties as a protected cultural heritage. The interior of the church was entirely depicted in the early 15th century. The church has a rather simple architecture: it has a rectangular ground plan; the walls are built of regular stone blocks in lime mortar, not plastered on the outside; a bell gable is present at the front façade; the roof is covered with slate tiles (recently restored - due to leakage part of the vault paintings was irretrievably lost).
We will present results of the numerical analysis of the pointed vault due to seismic actions. The failure mechanisms related to formation of plastic hinges will be examined and a brief overview of possible strengthening methods to increase the seismic resistance will be given.

Keywords: stone masonry, single-nave church, pointed barrel vault, medieval mural paintings