Refurbishment of the "White Tower", Brixen / Bressanone

The walls of the tower display numerous cracks and damage to the stucco. In order to evaluate the effect of bell-ringing on the structure and the movement of the crack-widths, vibrational measurements were carried out. In doing so, it was observed that there is a direct relationship between the ringing of the bells and width of the cracks. Because of the earthquakes in recent years and/or due to the bell-ringing, some cracks have grown larger, thus necessitating refurbishment. The first measure was a drastic reduction in the tower's dynamic loads. This was accomplished by installing counter-pendula to the five bells in the tower. Further refurbishment was achieved by inserting and slightly tensioning tension rods throughout the tower at different heights.