ABSTRACT
The main construction materials of a wide part of the world building historical heritage are masonry. A lot of these masonry structures need to be preserved for their cultural, historical and architectural value and represent the legacy to be inherited by future generations. This chapter deals with strengthening and consolidation of masonry columns, a long developed issue that also in the past interested restorers and designers in their works. The use of innovative materials in the field of architectural restoration is becoming more and more widespread, but not always the results of these applications can be considered satisfactory. Ancient confinement techniques were based on metal devices. This kind of reinforcement is particularly effective in avoiding the column breaking due to the compressive stress and in improving the general behaviour, when the intervention is extended to the whole structure. Using continuous basalt fibre stitching also the performances against "outof-plane" actions is improved.
