Safeguarding the historic town of San Fratello, Sicily

The paper presents the case history of San Fratello, a small town on the Nebrodi Mountains in Sicily rich in history and with very peculiar environmental and cultural characteristics. Both slopes of the narrow ridge where San Fratello is seated had been affected in 1754, 1922, 1986 and 2010 by very large landslides which caused the failure of a lot of buildings and historical monuments in the town. The paper illustrates the analyses carried out in the 2010 landslide and the design of stabilization works still in progress. Some problematic aspects related to the decision to safeguard San Fratello are discussed.