I balconi in travertino di Alcamo. Analisi e conoscenza per un recupero compatibile

This study analyses the construction techniques of balconies made of Travertine in the historical building of Alcamo, a small town in western Sicily. The study, supported by tests of mechanical characterisation of the travertine, provides the first supporting information for the proposal of intervention methods for compatible consolidation and restoration. After analysing the general characteristics of balconies in historical construction in the Mediterranean area, the individual components of the balconies of Alcamo - the soils and corbels - were analysed from a geometric-constructive and static point of view. In the second part of the paper, the results of the laboratory mechanical tests performed on the travertine are analysed, and some considerations are proposed based on the comparison between the results of the verification performed with the finite element method (FEM) and the failures found in real cases. The main purpose of this study is to provide the first data to contribute to the definition of good practices for a compatible recovery of these fragile architectural elements for which indiscriminate demolition is increasingly resorted to in the event of instability.