The restoration of the Ghirlandina Tower in Modena and the assessment of soil-structure interaction by means of dynamic identification techniques.

The present volume, titled The restoration of Ghirlandina Tower in Modena and the assessment of soil-structure interaction by means of dynamic identification techniques, provides within a single volume essential information on the history of the construction, the involved techniques, previous interventions and restoration works. It is proved how the interaction with the supporting soil may have had an important role, because it explains the meaning of the corrections that mesons did during construction, the pattern of settlements suffered by the tower and the Cathedral and their interaction. It is also discussed in length how the behavior of the tower during seismic events depends on the interaction with the supporting soil, because such interaction influences both the seismic demand and the capacity of the system, and, in this respect, this volume highlights the benefit derived by using identification techniques to capture and forecast this behavior. In addition to the above motivations, the is a single one aspect that should capture the interest of a wide readership: The Cathedral and the Ghirlandina Tower were included in 1997 in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and it was recognized that: "The creation process shared by Lanfranco and Wiligelmo is a masterpiece of human creativity, in which new dialectical relation between architecture and sculpture was created in Romanesque art. The Modena complex bears exceptional witness to the cultural traditions of the XII century in northern Italy's urban society where its organization, religious character, beliefs, and values are all reflected in the history of the buildings”.