PSI - Issue 29

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Paradiso, Conte and Prosperini / Structural Integrity Procedia 00 (2019) 000 – 000

64 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) Peer-review under responsibility of Marco Tanganelli and Stefania Viti Keywords: Church; Evolution; Houses; tradition; Museum. Michele Paradiso et al. / Procedia Structural Integrity 29 (2020) 63–70

1. Introduction The former Church of San Lorenzo in Pistoia was born by the will of the bishop Guidaloste Vergiolesi, who in 1272 assigned the oratory of Sant'Antonio in Pantano to a group of Augustinian friars, known as hermits, who had requestedPope Innocent IVof a seat within the Pistoia municipality. On 3 July 1278 the first stone was la id and the construction work began thanks to the material found from the demolition of the second circle of civic wa lls, now unused after the construction of the third and last circle. (1240). The work will not be limited to therestorationof the sma ll ora torybut will start a large project thatwill end with the constructionof theChurchand its convent. At the end of the 14th century the Church of San Lorenzo was to appear as a 73 m volume. for 21 m. with a height of about 20 m. The origina l conformationwith Gothic features had two entrances, a secondary one along the sidewall anda main one on the main facade surmounted by a tympanum with a circular rose window with a diameter of 3.60 m. The interior, characterizedby a single naveadornedwith twelvea ltars, endedwith a raisedapsidal area consistingof three square-plan chapels: the main chapel adorned with a large polychrome window, the chapel of San Giovanni with access to the bell tower and the chapel of the Holy Trinity with access to the crypt below. Nineteenwooden trusses with a composite chain supported theroof and the sidewalls presented, in different numbers, large Gothic windowsof considerable height with three-headed brick vertical shoulders and concluded by pointed arches. A rich decorative apparatus frescoed the interior. During the whole '400and' 500 thecomplexunderwent a series of renovationsstarting from the restoration of the facade and roof, as well as a series of modifications to align the appearance of the Church with the artistic current of the time. In1799, after the Napoleonic troops settled in Florence, the SanLorenzocomplex was occupiedby the French for about three months, who transformed part of the premises into deposits while others were rented out to private individuals. In 1815 the complex was ceded to the Capuchin friars and during their period, da table between1816and1866, two technical reports were drawnup whichbrought to light the serious conditions in which the bell tower poured, leading to the hypothesis of a loweringof this and its compensationwith large stones. 1.1. The transformation into "Ferrucci"military barracks After the abolition of orders, on 30 July 1877, a letter signed byColonel Sa là, testifies to the search by the Military Engineer of Florence for new premises to be used as military headquarters. This paper shows the proposal of the Military Engineer to the Municipality of Pistoia to occupypart of theformer convent of S. Lorenzo with its Church. From 1880 theChurchbecame theseat of the MilitaryDistrict, taking the name of theformer Churchof SanLorenzo or the Military District F. Ferrucci.

Fig. 1. (a) Ground floor plan of the pre-transformation state (1828); (b) post-transformation ground floor plan.