The vasarian church of Santa Maria Nuova. Ancient and current interventions to the structures/La chiesa vasariana di Santa Maria Nuova. Gli interventi antichi e attuali alle strutture

Santa Maria Nuova church, built near Cortona between 1550 and 1583, is characterised by a very composite design. The construction started with Giovan Battista Cristofanello (1550-1552) and, with variations and step by step definitions of the project, completed by Giorgio Vasari (in the years 1554, 1560, 1565, 1567 and 1568), and with the contribution of Giovanni Tristano (1555) and Mariotto di Bino (1573). A few years after the works were completed the structure showed the first signs of instability: the thrusts of the arches below the drum and dome had deformed the four chapels at the corners of the church plan. For this reason in 1600 the intervention of Valentino Martelli was required and in these chapels he identified the vulnerable parts of the structure where to focus interventions. The solution proposed by Valentino Martelli changed the behavior of the structures causing negative effects. In 1610 and 1638 other interventions and opinions were needed, but only in the nineties of the XX century the problem of deformability of the corner chapels of the church could be addressed with technologies ignored by ancient builders.