Tra restauro e ricostruzione. Le conseguenze del terremoto dell’801 in Italia centrale attraverso tre casi di studio: la collegiata di Otricoli e le cattedrali di Vescovio e Ascoli Piceno

This paper analyses some early medieval buildings in central Italy, which preserve substantial remains of elevated structures, in relation to a seismic event that struck these areas in 801. This is one of the best documented earthquakes of the Middle Ages, recorded in contemporary sources (Annales of Eginard and Liber Pontificalis), with details of the disastrous consequences suffered by the structures of the Basilica of St Paul. The earthquake of 801, however, has been questioned in the past by scholars in connection with other collapses in the Urbe, including those of the Basilica Ulpia in the Forum of Trajan and the Church of Saints Nereus and Achilleus in the Catacombs of Domitilla. If there has been no lack of research into the effects of earthquakes on the architectural fabric of the city of Rome, the same cannot be said of the inland areas of central Italy, which certainly suffered the destructive effects of the successive earthquakes of the early medieval centuries. It is precisely for this reason that this study proposes to analyse from this point of view the series of religious buildings of the early Carolingian period in Sabina, Umbria and Piceno - the collegiate church of Otricoli and the cathedrals of Vescovio and Ascoli Piceno - whose reconstruction or restoration could be linked to the 801 earthquake.