In Romania, historic monuments have suffered significant damage after earthquakes. In the southern part of Romania, in the Oltenia region between the years 1838 and 1977, five strong earthquakes with magnitude exceeding 7 ML occurred, causing severe and repeated damage to Orthodox churches constructed with brick masonry and lime mortar. After the 1940 earthquake, consolidation was carried out with modern materials for that period, such as metal ties and reinforced concrete. Due to the collapse of the central tower made of brick masonry during the 1977 earthquake in the Church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Craiova, it was reconstructed using reinforced concrete columns and beams. Furthermore, the consolidation was carried out using reinforced concrete. Due to the different mechanical properties of historic brick masonry with lime mortar and reinforced concrete, cracks appeared over time on the church walls in the contact zones between these materials. Under the coordination of Bishop Irineu of Oltenia, consolidation works were initiated for 17 historic monument churches in the Gorj region after the earthquakes in 2023, and this Church in Craiova was included in the list. The article presents the modes and areas of damage resulting from the introduction of consolidations with irreversible materials, together with the results of in situ tests conducted by the EXPIN laboratory in Padua, Italy, to determine the mechanical properties of the load-bearing elements comprising the Church and structural analysis of the Church using ETABS software to predict past, present, and future behaviour.

Historical buildings were built using local materials and technologies and suffered degradation of their structural elements over time due to abandonment, material degradation, unauthorised interventions or the action of extreme events such as earthquakes. In Romania, there are many historic buildings seriously damaged by earthquakes, which during the communist period were abandoned or strengthened through irreversible interventions with reinforced concrete. In recent years, historic buildings have begun to be consolidated, respecting the principles of sustainability, using mortars with hydraulic lime and composite materials. The article presents sustainable and reversible retrofitting solutions used for the consolidation of historical Orthodox churches in the Gorj area, Romania, severely damaged by the earthquakes of February 2023.