Structural failures due to anthropogenic sinkholes in the urban area of Naples

The heritage in masonry fits in any type of intervention both from the point of view of morphology than from the point of view of the material. The ability to find a new equilibrium configuration after each variation corresponds to a real capacity for adaptation. In current terms it could be said that masonry buildings embody the prototype of resilient structures. As known, the only problematic able to put in crisis a huge masonry building is the failure of the subsoil. In this sense the work aims to analyze, by relating the planimetric layout of the underground cavities of Naples with some recent collapses of structures that occurred in the city, highlighting collapse mechanisms in static terms. By analyzing the structure per macro elements, starting from individual structural components that constitute it, it is possible to trace to the global mechanism of the entire collapse and to attribute, with certainty, the cause to the corresponding existing empty. Another aspect of the problem concerns the triggering joint cause of these structural failures which generate the fragility of the subsoil. In other words, the accidental cause that induces the collapse of the structure, the same structure which has been standing for decades on the same cavity. This work intends to bring to light an already known issue to which a solution is not immediate (unless filling the cavity) but the awareness of the existence of these cavities should lead to more attention to future planning.