Restoration of the antique Town walls of Massa Marittima (Grosseto)

The restoration of a section of the ancient city walls of Massa Marittima was an opportunity to compete with a stone artefact of great historical interest and a very high level of document value, which presented serious forms of deterioration and punctual and widespread disruptions. The construction technique of those walls consists in two outer curtain walls whose interior was filled with earth, stones and lime. On the outer side of the walls there were large areas with the inner part in sight due to the collapse of the outside curtain and other parts of the exterior curtain were dangerously inclined towards the valley. It was decided to consolidate the walls by adding the missing parts using only the stone elements found at the base of the walls. There have been done a series of restoration works as the elimination of vegetation, cleaning, applications of biocides, reparation of lesions with sewing-off technique, reconstruction of joints, insertion of steel bars to bind the lower part of the walls, injections of lime mortar into the masonry and of steel rods to improve the transversal continuity of the masonry. It has been necessary to consolidate the inner part of the walls as well, using glass fiber mesh covered with a lime cement mortar.

PROJECT DATA

Locality: Massa Marittima (GR)
Client: Municipality of Massa Marittima
Assignment: Final and Executive Design Project, Project Management
Design Date: 2016-2017 / 2018

With: Diacon S.r.l. Prof. Arch. Giacomo Tempesta, arch. Giulia Galeotti

Construction Company: Green Service Edilizia srl