Monitoring heritage structures: A Bayesian perspective

From 2002 to 2009 Sandro De Stefano led a large scale priority project funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and involving nine major academic groups. The objective of the project was to establish rational methods for preserving historical heritage, exploiting structural health monitoring and new technologies in sensors and communication. During these years, the team led by Sandro worked on a number of case studies, ranging from roman antiquities to medieval towers, from renaissance castles to eighteenth century churches. The author of this paper had the privilege of working in this team and wishes to answer, in this contribution, a number of fundamental questions, including: Will SHM eventually save our historic heritage? What has Sandro to do with the Holy Shroud? And how can Bayes help preservation of Gothic frescos?