Masonry Buildings in the Bay of Kotor (Montenegro)

What is it about?

Old load-bearing masonry buildings exist all around the world. The cultural and architectural heritage value of these buildings and the consciousness of public opinion have led to a need for safeguarding and preservation policies for these architecturally valued buildings and urban aggregates. This paper provides the information on the constructive and structural details of the old buildings dating from the 12th to 19th century in the Bay of Kotor and discusses their seismic and dynamic behaviour, identifying structural fragilities and consequently their vulnerability. One factor that significantly influences the seismic vulnerability is the quality of workmanship, which has, in conjunction with the lack of maintenance of the buildings, increased the seismic vulnerability of heritage masonry buildings in general. Masonry constructions represent an important part of Montenegrin Architectural Heritage. The existing heritage masonry buildings in the Bay of Kotor suffered major earthquakes with repairs ranging from minor repairs to partial rebuilding. No degree of seismic resistance to any potentially severe shaking levels has been determined for the surviving buildings. The lack of strategies, policies and actions by the institutions responsible for this domain in the course of the second half of the 20th century drove these buildings to the state of serious degradation. The adoption of intrusive and inadequate rehabilitation and conservation practices, using new materials and construction techniques on structural and nonstructural elements, has strayed away from traditional knowledge and practices. The main objective of this research is understanding the whole building process that underpins a historical construction, and building techniques and other methods applied in building the architectural and engineering structures constituting the present Historical Heritage in Montenegro.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The historic buildings of the Bay of Kotor, as well as the wider surrounding area, are usually masonry, massive, nonframe, made of stone as the basic building material and lime mortar as a binder. Masonry structures are affected by significant seismic forces in proportion to their mass. They are insufficiently resilient to tensional and shear stress; they have low ductility (plasticity) and relatively small capacity for stress redistribution. However, the seismic resistance of these buildings may vary to a large extent, depending on the soil and the method of foundation, architectural form, the original quality of their structural elements and construction techniques, maintenance methods and so on.

Perspectives