The Trajan Markets and their Great Hall – The Conservation Problems and the Structural Intervention for the Improvement of the Seismic Safety

This paper focuses on the Great Hall of Trajan’s Markets in Rome and describes structural analyses and interventions designed and installed to improve structural stability. Trajan’s Markets were subjected to each of the last four big earthquakes that hit Rome, the last occurring in 1703, with a return period of around three-four centuries. The present geometrical and structural configuration of the Markets is different and weaker with respect to the original one, and also weaker with respect to their configuration in 1703. Numerical FEM analyses have been applied, lightening and emphasising the seismic vulnerability of the structure. In particular, the numerical analyses allowed the identification of the most vulnerable parts of the supporting structures as well as the assessment of an adequate retrofitting intervention criterion, based on the use of reversible techniques.