The present paper reports an in situ experimental test campaign carried out on existing
buildings, in order to investigate the seismic behaviour of traditional masonry walls subject to
out-of-plane loads. For the testing proposes, an experimental test setup based on a selfequilibrated
scheme was developed and optimized to be applied in situ in two specimens on
original and strengthened conditions. The obtained results are presented and carefully
discussed namely from the reinforcement solutions’ efficiency point-of-view, as well as
compared to previous experimental data obtained for the same type of masonry walls.
Additionally, a simplified linearized displacement-based procedure was adapted in order to
characterize the nonlinear force-displacement relationship for unreinforced traditional
masonry walls and to analytically predict the experimental test results. The confrontation
between the experimental and the analytical results are presented and discussed
