The Difficult Choice of Materials for the Reconstruction of the Cathedral of Noto

In 1996, the Cathedral of Noto (Sicily), suddenly collapsed partially, after being damaged by the 1990 earthquake, which hit the eastern part of Sicily. As the continuous propagation of cracks and damages in the pillars (made with external leaves in limestone and filled internally with rubble) due to the weak materials used and the poor construction adopted was considered as the main cause of the collapse, it was decided to rebuilt the collapsed and part of the damaged pillars adopting the traditional techniques and the same materials used in the past, with improvements of the pillars technique of construction. A difficult task was the choice of the stones for the reconstruction, first of all the choice of a suitable quarry and then the control of the stone properties at each delivery.