The San Nicolò Church is an important piece of the Italian cultural heritage and was heavily damaged in 2012. The church dates from 16th century and has been subject to many earthquakes during its long life. The first task was the detailed structural assessment performed in 2012, when the structural deficiencies and vulnerabilities were individuated and addressed in a preliminary study for retrofitting the monument.

In May 2012, the church was affected by the M-6.0 Emilia earthquake and Miyamoto was involved in designing the post-disaster interventions to restore the safety of the building.

The last phase was the seismic strengthening project. Several high-performance earthquake engineering solutions were developed, such as isolation of the dome, shape-memory alloy devices in the tie-rods and carbon fibers for dome strengthening. The final design resulted in a mix of traditional and innovative techniques, which gave renewed strength to this large monumental complex.