The timber roof of the Aula Magna of the University of Pavia

The paper present a research on the timber roof of the Aula Magna of the University of Pavia carried out on the basis of bibliographic and archival sources, geometric-constructive surveys, ending with the structural analysis carried out on the timber roof structures. In the second half of 18th century, in the administration of the Holy Roman Empire territories, Enlightenment ideas were introduced, through which universities received new impetus and fund-ing. Current Lombardy was then part of the Empire and the University of Pavia was the only one in the region. In this context, university architecture had a significant impetus too, with a series of renovations and additions by important architects, such as G. Piermarini and L. Pollach, but only in 1819-23 a comprehensive plan for the expansion and improvement of the university’s pal-ace was implemented by G. Marchesi (professor at the University). The last significant interven-tion of the period was the construction of the Aula Magna designed by Marchesi himself. The building is a substantially autonomous neoclassic basilica with a pronaos on one of the short sides and an apse on the opposite. The first project dates back to 1825, however only in 1833 the request to approve the project and finance the work was proposed to Austrian Government; the process of project and contract was very long and ended only in 1845, when the work could begin, ending in 1850. Some studies have reconstructed the design vicissitudes of the Aula Magna, but, they only focused on formal aspects, leaving out constructive issues and ignoring the roof. The Aula Magna as a hipped roof with a timber structure with four king post and two queen post trusses (these at the hip ends). This structure have significant interest from historical-constructive point of view and relevance with regard to conservation and safety of the entire building. The analysis carried out consent to assert that the timber structure is quite well pre-served from the material point of view – with the exception of a couple of points in which a sur-face material decay is present – and that the structure is safe from a structural point of view.