The present study aims to simulate the so-called "what if scenarios", i.e. to assess the potential economic losses that will be cause nowadays by the reccurrence of historical earthquakes happened in the past centuries in Northeastern Italy. A review of the main historical earthquakes is herein presented, together with an analysis of the residential building stock aimed at developing a suitable taxonomy class for the definition of the structural vulnerability. Since that for the analyzed events no shake-maps were available, part of the work was dedicated to the development of a shaking scenario engine able to reproduce some recent Italian Earthquakes. Results show that Northeastern Italy is particularly susceptible of significant economic losses, due to its high urbanization and high structures’ vulnerability. Furthermore, economical losses can be amplify considering the fact the area of study is particularly industrialized.