The religious building “Our Lady of Tears” in Syracuse is one of the constructions included in the Italian network of structures permanently monitored by the National Department of Civil Protection. The building is made in bare concrete and consists of a crypt, a clear area for the audience, some 4000 m2 large, on the ground floor, and a majestic dress-shaped dome resting on 22 reinforced concrete pillars. The dome has a base diameter of 71,40 m and a height of 74,30 m. The area where the building is situated is rated as medium-high seismic risk and so in 2006 the whole dome was lifted and its original supports were replaced with energy-absorbing elements in order to mitigate the risk. A site-specific integrated monitoring system was implemented by Boviar by installing different sensors all over the construction for monitoring 2D and 3D displacement at the domebase interface; wind velocity with direction; and acceleration.
This continuous control system is 24h/day actively linked with database of OSS (Italian Watch Centre for Seismic Risk) of the Italian Dept. of Civil Protection as well as to the Dept. of Structural Engineering of University of Naples “Federico II”.