Vulnerability Assessment of Historical Churches in Banat Seismic Region, Romania

Romania is a country located in Europe, with moderate seismicity and a very large number of historical churches. Banat region is the second most important seismic area in the country, located in the western part, characterized by shallow earthquakes of crustal type. In Banat area there are many historic churches, both Orthodox and Catholic. The majority of the churches are mostly with a central nave, made in masonry, with masonry vaults and complex wooden frameworks. They also present architectural-artistic details, such as paintings made by Austrian, Serbian and Romanian painters. Many of them have suffered different types of structural damages after past earthquakes. The damage types are different, depending on the type of earthquake and on the architectural conformation. The present paper investigates the seismic vulnerability for six historic churches in Banat area and presents the results of various empirical and numerical analysis and investigations. The analysis identifies the specific vulnerable points of the historic religious structures, illustrating the seismic vulnerability of the churches with central nave in Banat seismic area. Moreover, the paper brings out the importance of investigating the seismic behavior of religious buildings, as they are permanent part of each local community, and they present an important cultural value.