Cupole in cemento armato in Sicilia occidentale nella prima metà del Novecento

The paper intends to examine through three case studies the change introduced by the technology of reinforced concrete in the construction of domes. After a brief description of the geometric and architectural characteristics of reinforced concrete domes, the study focuses on three interventions, for which a considerable archival documentation was collected. Chronologically the first intervention is related to the construction of the dome of the mother-church of Bisacquino (1923-25), built on the basis of the architectural project and under the direction of the engineer Pietro Scibilia. The second concerns the reconstruction of the dome of Sant’Ignazio martire all'Olivella church in Palermo, destroyed by the bombings that struck the city in 1943, that was designed by the architect Mario Guiotto, Superintendent of Monuments of Western Sicily. The last examines the reconstruction of the dome of the mother-church of Marsala, erected on the basis of a project of Giuseppe Damiani Almeyda after the collapse occurred in 1893 and which was completed in 1951. The present paper analyzes in particular the study of the dome of the church of Sant’Ignazio, for which a notable documentation was collected, dwelling on the static and technological problems related to its reconstruction.