Add to ORKGThis study presents a detailed failure analysis of different masonry churches, which were severely damaged during the 2016 Centre of Italy seismic sequence, using nonlinear (i.e., kinematic limit and pushover) analyses. The main aims of the numerical investigations are: (i) to carry out a sufficiently wide sensitivity study on different specific case studies to have an insight into the role played by the geometry - which is always unique for churches - and by the irregularities; (ii) to validate or address the limits of applicability of the most widespread conventional static approaches recommended by Italian Code