The rubble of Castelluccio, what remains after the demolition of almost all the houses.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
Seven years after an earthquake virtually erased Castelluccio di Norcia from the central Italian map, almost nothing has been rebuilt in the town, which sits above the vast, high-altitude meadow in the Apennine Mountains known as Italy’s Little Tibet.
Piles of rubble still lie everywhere since the magnitude 6.5 earthquake – the most powerful in Italy since 1980 – flattened the Umbrian town at 7:40 a.m. on the last Monday in October, 2016. In one gutted house, blue plastic clothes pegs are scattered on what may have been the kitchen floor; in another, an intact yellow and white ceramic bowl rests on the ruins of a window ledge.
The road to Castelluccio.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
Civil engineers wilted when they saw the ruins. Castelluccio was heavily damaged in the 1982 and 1997 quakes and rebuilt both times. Would they do so once again? Yes, they said, but only if they installed a technology that would theoretically make the town earthquake-proof forever.
Their novel project, which comes with a €68-million price tag, will see the entire town placed on a “cushion” designed to absorb the kinetic energy released by quakes and tremors, after which the town itself will be rebuilt more or less as it looked before the earthquake, including the 16th-century Church of Santa Maria Assunta and its bell tower, which were beloved regional architectural gems. “This project will be unique in the world,” said Stefano Nodessi Proietti, Umbria’s director of the environment and civil protection. “This is the last time we will rebuild the town, so we wanted the best technology available.”
Nodessi Stefano Proietti, director of the Regional Directorate 'Territorial Government, Environment, Civil Protection'.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The project is to begin next spring, he said, and last two or three years. The locals are not convinced, of course, because long bureaucratic and funding delays are routine, turning even the most patient Italians into weary skeptics. “I doubt I will see this project finished in my lifetime, and I am 52,” said Vincenzo Perla, a farmer who spends the offseason running one of the few remaining shops, a small delicatessen, in Castelluccio, just down the hill from the shattered historic centre. “But if it works, this beautiful town will be full of tourists again. On some days in the summer, before the earthquake, there would be 1,000 of them here.”
Only five residents remain in Castelluccio. Before the earthquake, the permanent population was more than 100, and several hundred more worked the restaurants, hotels and bars in the high season, when small armies of bikers, trekkers and gourmands filled the streets hunting for craft Umbrian beer, pasta with black truffle cream sauce and the local lentils, reputed to be Italy’s finest.
In Castelluccio di Norcia, only one restaurant remains. It is in a temporary structure just below the wrecked town.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
Umbria is one of the most active seismic zones in Europe. Tremors are commonplace, and the biggies can be financially ruinous, since earthquake insurance that would cover structural repairs is almost impossible to buy.
No one was killed in the Castelluccio earthquake, and the good fortune was not regarded as an act of God; the town had been shaken by tremors in the days and weeks before the big quake, forcing almost all the residents to pack up and leave while their houses were still standing. They even retrieved most of the artwork and furnishings from Santa Maria Assunta and put them into safe storage.
The summer of 2016 was an earthquake hell zone in central Italy, so the residents of Castelluccio were prepared for the worst. On Aug. 24, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake, with its epicentre about 75 kilometres southeast of Perugia, the Umbrian capital, flattened several towns and villages, killing 299 people, including one Canadian. The worst-hit town was Amatrice, where 234 died. It looked like it had been hit by a carpet-bombing raid. In the following week, the region was rattled by some 2,500 aftershocks felt as far away as Rome and Florence.
Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The idea to build a protective cushion beneath Castelluccio was first inspired by the 1997 visit by Umbrian civil engineering officials to earthquake-prone Japan, where the seismic-cushion technology has been put into use. But it wasn’t until the deadly Italian quakes of 2016 that the concept was finally pursued in earnest in Umbria and tailored to the peculiarities of Castelluccio, which rises like a layer cake from the top of a hill some 1,450 metres above sea level.
Using excavation machines, horizontal caverns will be dug in stages a few metres beneath the town. These caverns, to be built in stepped-up elevations reflecting the climbing shape of the town, will cover more than 6,000 square metres, or about 1.5 acres.
A reinforced concrete pad a bit less than a metre thick will form the base of the caverns, on top of which a series of stand-alone “seismic isolators” will be installed. The isolators, about half a metre thick, will be made of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that can compress like the shock absorbers on a car. Another pad, directly below the town’s buildings, will form the top layer of the cavern, which will be spacious enough to allow engineers to inspect the isolators and replace them if they are damaged. “All of Castelluccio will be suspended on this cushion,” said Mr. Nodessi Proietti. “They should result in the tenfold reduction of the power of the quake.”
Earthquake protection: How it works
The town of Castelluccio di Norcia will rest on neoprene seismic isolators which are designed to absorb most of the destructive energy released by a quake's vertical and lateral movement.
Seismic base isolator
close-up
Rubber and steel
elastomeric isolator
with lead core
Top plate
Base plate
Anchor bolt
Building
structure
Slab
Ground
The effect of seismic forces upon a structure are reduced by the
placement of isolation units which have high stiffness in vertical
direction and low stiffness in horizontal direction
Adriatic
Sea
Castelluccio di Norcia
Ascoli
Piceno
Norcia
UMBRIA
Spoleto
Teramo
Terni
Italy
Rieti
L'Aquila
20 km
john sopinski/the globe and mail, Source:protastructure; open-
streetmap; comune di castelluccio di norcia
Earthquake protection: How it works
The town of Castelluccio di Norcia will rest on neoprene seismic isolators which are designed to absorb most of the destructive energy released by a quake's vertical and lateral movement.
Seismic base isolator
close-up
Rubber and steel
elastomeric isolator
with lead core
Top plate
Base plate
Anchor bolt
Building
structure
Slab
Ground
The effect of seismic forces upon a structure are reduced by the
placement of isolation units which have high stiffness in vertical
direction and low stiffness in horizontal direction
Adriatic
Sea
Castelluccio di Norcia
Ascoli
Piceno
Norcia
UMBRIA
Spoleto
Teramo
Terni
Italy
Rieti
L'Aquila
20 km
john sopinski/the globe and mail, Source:protastructure; open-
streetmap; comune di castelluccio di norcia
Earthquake protection: How it works
The town of Castelluccio di Norcia will rest on neoprene seismic isolators which are designed to absorb most of the destructive energy released by a quake's vertical and lateral movement.
Seismic base isolator
close-up
Rubber and steel
elastomeric isolator
with lead core
Top plate
Base plate
Anchor bolt
Building
structure
Slab
Ground
The effect of seismic forces upon a structure are reduced by the
placement of isolation units which have high stiffness in vertical
direction and low stiffness in horizontal direction
Adriatic
Sea
Ascoli
Piceno
Norcia
UMBRIA
Spoleto
Teramo
Terni
Italy
Rieti
L'Aquila
20 km
john sopinski/the globe and mail, Source:protastructure; open-
streetmap; comune di castelluccio di norcia
An example of anti-seismic shock absorbers.Fabrizio Troccoli/The Globe and Mail
The technology has been used in a few Italian bridges and historic and public buildings, including the relatively new Umbrian regional government building in the city of Foligno, but never for an entire town. The cost of the cushion alone is about €20-million; the rest of the state money, about €48-million, is to be spent rebuilding the town itself. The Brunello and Federica Cucinelli Foundation, set up by the wealthy Umbrian family that makes luxurious Cucinelli cashmere garments, has offered to restore the church and the town’s main square.
The Umbrian government thinks the Castelluccio anti-earthquake technology could emerge as a model for the preservation of historic centres in towns and cities in seismic areas throughout Europe. But there is a catch: The engineers will not know if the cushion truly works until the next earthquake. In shaking and shuddering Umbria, they may not have to wait long.