Int. J. Masonry Research and Innovation, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2019 297 Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Macro element and dynamic seismic analysis of the medieval government building of Perugia, Italy Giulio Castori, Marco Corradi*, Antonio Borri and Romina Sisti Department of Engineering, University of Perugia, Via Duranti, 93, 06125 Perugia, Italy Fax: +39-75-585-2910 Email: giulio.castori@unipg.it Email: marco.corradi@unipg.it Email: antonio.borri@unipg.it Email: romina.sisti@unipg.it *Corresponding author Alessandro De Maria Umbrian Seismic Safety Office, Regione Umbria, Corso Vannucci, 96, 06121 Perugia, Italy Fax: +39-75-504-2732 Email: ademaria@regione.umbria.it Abstract: This paper emphasises the actual structural analysis of a multistory medieval building, located in Perugia, Italy, for seismic resistance. This is the local governor building of the capital city of Umbria, known as Palazzo dei Priori, an iconic grade-I stone masonry construction. Strong emphasis is placed on specific issues, critical for the structural response of the building under the seismic action. Fundamental assessment methods are presented and discussed to find vulnerabilities and defects that affect its seismic response. The discussion includes the analysis by macro-elements (local analysis), leading to the identification to the most likely collapse mechanisms of the building under the seismic action. In addition to the macro-element method, a nonlinear analysis is given for the whole building. All the used analyses are carried out with reference to the Italian guidelines for heritage protection and conservation and by considering the architectural and artistic assets of the building. Keywords: historic masonry; earthquake engineering; numerical modelling; seismic assessment. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Castori, G., Corradi, M., Borri, A., Sisti, R. and De Maria, A. (2019) ‘Macro element and dynamic seismic analysis of the medieval government building of Perugia, Italy’, Int. J. Masonry Research and Innovation, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp.297–311. Biographical notes: Giulio Castori is a Researcher in Structural Mechanics at the University of Perugia. He has been a staff member at the department since 2005. His research and scholarly interests include mechanics of materials and numerical methods of masonry structures. His PhD thesis was about a new retrofitting method for arches and vaults using composite materials.