The impact of the two seismic events of August 24th 2016 on the municipality of Amatrice was highly destructive. There were 298 victims, 386 injured, about 5000 homeless, and the historical center of the town suffered a great number of partial and total collapses. The 260 strong motion records obtained for the first event were analyzed and plotted in a shakemap, comparing them with the macroseismic damage surveys made in 305 localities. On the basis of an inspection survey made in September 2016, a map of the damage patterns of the buildings in the historical center was elaborated according to the EMS 98 classification. The damage level resulted very high with more than 60% of the inspected buildings showing partial or total collapse. The elevated level of destruction was mainly caused by the high vulnerability of the masonry buildings, mostly due to specific vulnerability factors such as the poor quality of masonry, the lack of connections between walls and the poor connection between external walls and floors.

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In the structural safety assessment process of existing structures, knowledge of the mechanical properties of the materials is key. Different experimental activities carried out on materials extracted from existing reinforced concrete buildings show a high strength variability, especially concrete. In the past, the lack of standardized quality control for materials and workmanship caused nonuniform and homogeneous properties within the same structure. The most accurate and reliable experimental technique consists of performing direct tests on the materials, but these are considerably expensive and invasive. In this paper, alternative indirect methods that estimate material properties by correlating different physical measures were proved to reduce invasive inspections on existing buildings and infrastructures, especially in built heritage. A complete experimental activity concerning destructive and nondestructive tests was conducted on elements (four portions of a column and a beam portion) removed from an Italian school building built in 1940. Destructive and nondestructive methods were compared and appropriate correlation laws developed to predict the main mechanical properties of the studied material. Reliable correlations were identified considering the pull-out test, Sonic–Rebound (SonReb) combined method and ultrasonic pulse velocities (UPVs). The latter were mapped by tomography, which highlighted the compression properties of concrete in the different structural sections.