ABSTRACT
Arched lintels are quite common structures in historical buildings. Many historical buildings made from bricks contain brick arched lintels of different curvature. If the main strength of lintel depended only on the lintel's condition many buildings nowadays with seriously damaged lintels would already be ruined. The overall strength of masonry wall near lintels can have much greater strength than we assumed, because of the secondary arch effect under the point force. The crack of such lintels not necessarily has to be the limit state of the construction. Arched lintels are quite common structures in historical buildings. Big spans lintels could only be created that way. Before using arches lintels span were limited to the available material length, for example lintels made from single stone. The impact zone known from the design standards for the brick lintels calculation is only proper for fresh mortar or the ones with very low adhesion.
