Research on construction techniques of the “genoese” coastal towers in southern Corsica (built between XVI and XVII century)

Abstract

[EN] The research comes from the study of techniques adopted in the building of the coastal towers on the island of Corsica between XVI and XVII century. The research is structured in a first phase of acquisition of the archival material, historical-iconographic, bibliographic and cartographic and then developed in the direct study of the artifacts and leads through instrumental relief and photographic documentation, stratigraphic analysis and the investigation of building materials.. All the material has been prepared for the graphical restitution of the complete volumes of the towers, and compared with the rich archival documentation of scale models of the towers and of the metrical estimate calculations. The archival research and surveys in the site led to the identification and recognition about the artefacts, in particular about those reduced to ruins, of the construction techniques on the masonry, quality and utilitazion of mortars, quality and use of bricks and of the stone material, particular technique of “opus gallicum” for reinforcement of the vaults.