Atas do 4º Congresso Internacional de História da Construção Luso-Brasileira

In Sicily, a notoriously seismic area, three strong earthquakes occurred in the space of only five years: the 1818 earthquake in the Etna area, in the south-eastern part of Sicily, a sequence of tremors in the Madonie area between 1818 and 1819 and the 1823 earthquake which affected the north part of the island. By comparing the three events, this contribution intends to investigate the ways in which the seismic emergency was dealt with and the problems caused by the consolidation and restoration of the damaged architectural heritage. Through a comparative study of the building practices employed after the aforementioned earthquakes, was given importance to the different solutions adopted in terms of anti-seismicity, also conditioned by the different availability of materials. Research is based on a cross study of iconographic and bibliographic sources (manuscripts, printed works by coeval authors and treatises), and new archival documents. The study of the sources, integrated by inspection of the sites, made it possible to analyse, through the selection of case studies, the technologies applied to consolidate and restore buildings.