Earth constructions cover 30% of the total built heritage in the world, some of which are Unesco World Heritage listed. Building in rammed earth consists in compacting layers of moist earth within a formwork to erect walls. Rammed earth constructions are known for presenting high seismic vulnerability, due to their high dead-weight, low mechanical properties (especially very low tensile strength) and poor connections between structural elements. During a seismic event of moderate intensity, the walls tend to fail in their plane and in out-of-plane mechanisms. In South Portugal, the regions of Alentejo and Algarve are seismically active and a significant part of the built heritage is made of rammed earth. The structural vulnerability of rammed earth buildings puts the heritage and the life of their inhabitants at risk. Hence, the mitigation of the aforementioned risks demands the development of adequate interventions for the seismic strengthening of rammed earth constructions. In Peru, coatings reinforced with geomesh have been used for the strengthening of adobe constructions, where this solution has been shown to be highly effective in increasing their bearing capacity and energy dissipation capacity under seismic loading. This type of solution can also be applied to rammed earth with the same purpose, nevertheless little investigation has been carried out on its development and validation. Little literature available for conservation principles and structural retrofitting makes it even more challenging. The development of this solution, in this case, needs the investigation of compatible materials and of the characterization of its mechanical behaviour. Proceeding in this way will make possible to create bases for proper design, namely with respect to the development of numerical tools. In this context, the main objective of this dissertation is to contribute for the development of the knowledge on the strengthening of rammed earth walls by means of reinforced coatings. The proposed objective integrates the following methodology: a) literature review on rammed earth construction, namely focused on their seismic behaviour and intervention approaches, and on the strengthening of masonry with reinforced coatings; b) proposal of an approach for strengthening rammed earth constructions with reinforced coatings within the international principles and guidelines for heritage conservation; c) execution of an experimental program dedicated to the characterization of the behaviour of the solution (individual materials and interaction). The experiments were carried out in the structural laboratory of University of Minho, followed by evaluating the results and discussing the findings.