Experimental research on the creep behaviour of historic masonry

After the collapse of the tower of Pavia, like often happens after a catastrophic event, a new attention was paid to the variable time within the study of the mechanical behaviour of ancient masonry, and experimental and numerical researches were systematically carried out to deepen its knowledge. In the paper, a state of the art of the results obtained by different testing procedures on specimens coming from different historic towers is presented. The difficulties of carrying out real creep test and the suitability of simpler experimental procedures will be discussed and pointed out.