Presented by Prof. Carlo Lai, University of Pavia (Italy) Recent earthquakes in European seismic-prone countries like Italy, Greece and Turkey have dramatically rekindled the attention on the importance of safeguarding historical monuments and cultural heritage sites against the threat from natural catastrophes. Assessing the seismic risk of an historical monument requires definition of the expected seismic hazard at the site of interest and of vulnerability and exposure of the architectural heritage to be protected. This is often the first step…