The assessment of existing masonry towers under exceptional loads, such as earthquake loads,
requires reliable, expedite and efficient methods of analysis. These approaches should take into account both
the randomness that affects the masonry properties (in some cases also the distribution of the elastic
parameters) and, of course, the nonlinear behavior of masonry. Considering the need of simplified but effective
methods to assess the seismic response of such structures, the paper proposes an efficient approach for seismic
assessment of masonry towers assuming the material properties as a stochastic field. As a prototype of masonry
towers a cantilever beam is analyzed assuming that the first modal shape governs the structural motion. With
this hypothesis a nonlinear hysteretic Bouc & Wen model is employed to reproduce the system response which
is subsequently employed to evaluate the response bounds. The results of the simplified approach are compared
with the results of a finite element model to show the effectiveness of the method
