Engineering Structures 30 (2008) 2185–2193 www.elsevier.com/locate/engstruct Consolidation, rebuilding and strengthening of St. Clement’s church, St. Panteleymon, Plaoshnik, Ohrid Golubka Necevska-Cvetanovska 1 , Roberta Apostolska ∗ Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, IZIIS, Salvador Aljende, 73, P.O. Box 101, 1000, Skopje, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Available online 10 September 2007 Abstract The paper deals with application of an originally developed methodology for repair and seismic strengthening of St. Clement’s Church, Plaoshnik, Ohrid. To renovate the structure based on the original foundation dating back to the 9th century, complex multidisciplinary investigations were performed in the field of archaeology, conservation, engineering and construction. Presented in this paper are the investigations related to the design of the structural system based on elaborated architectonic bases that are to preserve the authenticity of the structure, performed geotechnical investigations of the site and defined input seismic parameters. A linear-elastic and nonlinear dynamic analysis of the structure was performed. Based on the obtained results, the concept of repair and seismic strengthening of the church was adopted. It consisted of incorporation of horizontal and vertical steel ties in the bearing walls of the structure. This method, which is based on the philosophy of “minimal intervention–maximal protection”, had originally been developed at IZIIS, Skopje and it has been experimentally and analytically verified. The techniques of consolidation of the authentic foundation of the structure and the existing walls with original fresco-paintings are also presented. c  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Church; Analysis; Strengthening; St. Panteleymon; Renovation; Historic monument; Bearing capacity; Deformability capacity; Safety factor against failure 1. Introduction In a place called Plaoshnik lying between the lake and the monumental ramparts of Samoilo’s fortress dating back some 1100 years ago, the church of St. Panteleymon, Plaoshnik was erected. The Plaoshnik compound represents a structure of special national interest for the Republic of Macedonia and as such has been put under the protection of the Law for Protection of Cultural Monuments. The archaeological investigations and excavations of the Plaoshnik, Ohrid locality done in 1942, 1965, 1999 and particularly 2000 enabled complete definition of the phases of construction of St. Clement’s church dating back to the 9th–14th centuries. St. Clement’s church was restored upon the existing foundations from that period. ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +389 2 3107 717; +389 2 3107 701; fax: +389 2 3112 163. E-mail addresses: golubka@pluto.iziis.ukim.edu.mk (G. Necevska-Cvetanovska), beti@pluto.iziis.ukim.edu.mk (R. Apostolska). 1 Tel.: +389 2 3107 736; +389 2 3107 701; fax: +389 2 3112 163. In 2001, at the initiative of the established Organizational Board for Restoration of St. Clement’s church “St. Panteley- mon” in Plaoshnik, Ohrid, there started the realization of the idea for the renovation of the church based on assuming its ap- pearance from the original remains of the church walls without damaging the excavated fresco fragments. At the initiative of the Board a professional body consisting of eminent architects, structural engineers, archaeologists, art historians and conser- vators was constituted. Their main concern was to find the most appropriate solution for consolidation, rebuilding and strength- ening of St. Clement’s church in Ohrid. Based on the archeological investigations architectonic documentation was elaborated by the Institute for Protection of Cultural Monuments and National Museum, Ohrid. The design of the structural system, the technical solution for consolidation of existing foundations and walls, as well as the methodology for repair and strengthening of the church’s structural system, were defined by the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Engineering Seismology, Skopje, [1]. 0141-0296/$ - see front matter c  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.engstruct.2007.07.018