LOCATION: Verona, Italy YEAR: 2005 CLIENT: Verona Municipality
Porta Vescovo is one of the main gate to the city of Verona through the city masonry walls. Historical documents date the construction of Porta Vescovo back to 1520.
Numeria team worked together with Prof. A. Sandrini in the design of the Porta Vescovo preservation intervention.
Before starting the design, photogrammetric surveys, chemical analysis, damage assessment and non-destructive tests were carried out under Numeria supervision. Being Verona located in a seismic area, the design is supported by a seismic vulnerability analysis of the building in its actual and post-intervention conditions.
The design proposed has been based on the criteria of minimum intervention, structural compatibility, chemical-physical compatibility and reversibility.
Porta Vescovo is one of the main gate to the city of Verona through the city masonry walls. Historical documents date the construction of Porta Vescovo back to 1520. Renaissance aspect remained until 1850, when a second cart way was realized and Porta Vescovo was heavily remodeled. Between 1862 and 1863 Hapsburgs changed the shape of Porta Vescovo: two lateral one-story buildings were constructed, two new little towers and battlemented top were put on the outer side, but the sloping roof still remained untouched. In 1920 new gates were opened in the curtain city walls near Porta Vescovo and the original structure underwent some heavy interventions. Part of the climbing masonry arches that sustained the roof and the timber roof itself were demolished and a concrete slab was grouted as a cover for the building. In 1952, after the Second World War, some restoration works interested the concrete slab.
The concrete slab nowadays shows evident signs of degradation, presenting large cracks and lacunae. From these cracks, rain and water entered the construction and damaged brick masonry and facades finishes.
The intervention proposes the ancient timber tile covered roof and the remodelling of the rain pipe system. A new four pitch roof, tile covered, reintegrating the shape has been designed and constructed. The structural system of the new roof has been kept intentionally different from the old one, in order to respect the criterion of recognizably and to avoid any kind of damage to the Porta’s structure. The concrete slab has be completely removed, but the bond beam. The bond beam, after a corrosion protection treatment, has been consolidated and the lacunae refilled in order to preserve it and to use it as a support for the new laminated timber roof and to maintain a bonding effect. The timber structure is leaning only on the concrete bond beam without any kind of interaction with the masonry vault.
