Preserving Templar Heritage: A Comprehensive Structural Assessment of the Church of San Bevignate in Perugia (Italy)

This paper presents the architectural and structural analysis of the Templar Church of San Bevignate (Perugia, Italy), a monument renowned for its 13th-century frescoes and cultural significance. Preserved largely intact, the church has undergone structural interventions since the 1990s, aimed at mitigating seismic vulnerability while safeguarding its artistic heritage. The seismic behaviour was evaluated adopting a multi-level approach. Material properties were characterised at micro-scale through the Masonry Quality Index (MQI). Local collapse mechanisms were then investigated via kinematic analysis, while the global response under combined seismic actions was evaluated with nonlinear static analyses on an equivalent frame model. The study was supported by extensive on-site inspections, detailed geometric and structural surveys, and a review of previous interventions. Following the Italian Guidelines for the Evaluation and Mitigation of Seismic Risk to Cultural Heritage, the research highlights how standard assessment methodologies can yield results difficult to interpret without accurate historical reconstruction and diagnostic tests. By integrating multi-scale analyses with historical and technical evidence, the study identifies the mechanisms driving seismic vulnerability and underlines the main limitations and uncertainties of current procedures. The findings can help practitioners in critically approaching in-situ surveys, modelling, and data interpretation for preserving masonry and Templar architectural heritage.