Investigation and preservation of historic foundations

Italian experiences provide a long list of successful engineering solutions for the preservation of historic sites and, in particular, of tall structures like medieval and bell towers. Among them, Pisa Tower and Frari Bell Tower in Venice can demonstrate that innovative approaches and methodologies for the strengthening of historic foundations can be devised without any direct intervention on the structures and with the main aim of preserving their full integrity. Through purposely implemented and extensive real-time monitoring systems, it has been possible to minimize the impact of stabilization measures on the existing structures, including the historic foundations. The technologies used in the case studies described in this paper have proved to be especially gradual and flexible. Together with a number of other well described and successful examples of preservation activities currently available in the literature, such case studies will be hopefully used as a source of inspiration for future strengthening interventions aimed at preserving the integrity and the authenticity of historic foundations.