Dynamic Identification of the Sant’Andrea Pulpit in Pistoia (Italy): Some Preliminary Notes

Cultural heritage structures, that can be considered as the assemblage of rigid bodies (statues, pulpits, etc.), are susceptible to overturning in case of seismic events, with the potential loss of invaluable masterpieces. Therefore, the response under ground motion and their intrinsic vulnerability opened a debate among the scientific community about the possibility of a base isolation of such structures. The answer to this question is not trivial and the assessment of their structural dynamic (under ambient vibration) is required as a first step in a structural health monitoring perspective. In this paper the case of the Sant’Andrea Pulpit in Pistoia (Italy), a medieval masterwork by the Italian sculpture Giovanni Pisano, is presented, and the massive dynamic testing campaign performed is described.