The collapse of Schola Armaturarum at Pompeii

The headquarters of a military association named Schola Armaturarum and located in the archaeological site of Pompeii suddenly collapsed on 6 November 2010. The building was composed of rubble masonry walls with important frescoes. The 79 AC volcanic eruption at Mount Vesuvius, Italy, completely buried Schola Armaturarum, which was discovered by archaeologists in 1915 and again destroyed during the Second World War. Schola Armaturarum was reconstructed in 1946 by connecting the masonry walls through reinforced concrete (RC) ring beams and realizing a heavy RC roof. The collapse of Schola Armaturarum was a terrible event for world community, so the Judicial Authority appointed the author to investigate the causes of the accident and relevant responsibilities. This paper describes the collapse mechanism and configuration, as well as all stages of the forensic investigation based on the use of special techniques. The main scope is to shed some light on what happened at Pompeii.