Investigation strategies for the diagnosis of historic structures: on-site tests on Avio Castle, Italy, and Pisece Castle, Slovenia

This paper presents and discusses the results of investigations carried out by the authors on two castles that are considered as case histories within a project financed by the European Commission (project EVK4-2001-00091 ONSITEFORMASONRY), coordinated by C. Maierhofer of Bundesanstalt fur Materialforschung und prufung (BAM), Germany. An extensive investigation programme (including sonic, radar, flat-jack, coring, boroscopy, etc.) was planned to support the preservation and restoration actions of two ancient castles. The experience from this investigation shows the importance of the diagnosis project in selecting the most relevant strategies and tests for each specific problem.