Damage Historical Prevention in Southern Italy’s Built Heritage. A Focus on Holed Masonries Through Campania and Molise Regions

The paper pays attention to the historical building preventive technique consisting of the insertion of transversal wooden elements for the reinforcement of the walls. The ‘mixed’ wood-stone technique, generally interpreted as a variation of the ancient building methods of opus gallicum, is recognizable with evident differences from this latter in Medieval and Early Modern castles (e.g. Cervinara Castle) and archaeological Medieval urban sites (e.g., the ancient Cerreto Sannita). The recurrence of circular holes placed at fairly regular intervals along wall faces, of wooden fragments and mortars’ internal finishing characterizes fabrics of Molise and Sannio contexts, typically affected by seismic events. An exhaustive framework of the technique is not yet available, neither in relation to Italian contexts nor in relation to European building areas. The interpretation of the construction phenomenon through a broad comparative lens is presented as a research perspective to understand the reasons of construction solutions and in the choice of wood species. Through the analysis of a range of case studies, the paper focuses on the above-mentioned construction technique in Italian Central-Southern areas characterized by a historical seismicity interlacing indirect sources analysis and onsite thematic surveys.