diff --git a/src/borg/archive.py b/src/borg/archive.py
index 11deb8bd8..6839a1465 100644
--- a/src/borg/archive.py
+++ b/src/borg/archive.py
@@ -831,10 +831,16 @@ Duration: {0.duration}
             st = os.stat(path, follow_symlinks=False)
             if continue_extraction and same_item(item, st):
                 return  # done! we already have fully extracted this file in a previous run.
-            elif stat.S_ISDIR(st.st_mode):
-                os.rmdir(path)
-            else:
+            if not stat.S_ISDIR(st.st_mode):
                 os.unlink(path)
+            elif stat.S_ISDIR(item.mode):
+                # if we have an existing directory and we want to extract a directory,
+                # we just use the existing one and do not remove it.
+                # This fixes the issue that the existing directory might be a BTRFS subvolume.
+                # If we removed it, we would lose the subvolume, see #4233.
+                pass
+            else:
+                os.rmdir(path)  # only works for empty directories
         except UnicodeEncodeError:
             raise self.IncompatibleFilesystemEncodingError(path, sys.getfilesystemencoding()) from None
         except OSError:
@@ -883,6 +889,12 @@ Duration: {0.duration}
                 if not os.path.exists(path):
                     os.mkdir(path)
                 if restore_attrs:
+                    # note: if we did not create the directory freshly, existing attributes
+                    # might get mixed up with the archived attributes. this is acceptable,
+                    # considering we usually extract into an empty base directory.
+                    # when continuing an extraction, the existing attributes and the archived
+                    # attributes should be identical anyway.
+                    # Also, we want to avoid #4223 (losing btrfs subvolumes).
                     self.restore_attrs(path, item)
             elif stat.S_ISLNK(mode):
                 make_parent(path)
diff --git a/src/borg/testsuite/archiver/extract_cmd_test.py b/src/borg/testsuite/archiver/extract_cmd_test.py
index 5326d2e6d..097b39a29 100644
--- a/src/borg/testsuite/archiver/extract_cmd_test.py
+++ b/src/borg/testsuite/archiver/extract_cmd_test.py
@@ -791,3 +791,20 @@ def test_extract_file_with_missing_chunk(archivers, request):
     output = cmd(archiver, "extract", "archive")
     # TODO: this is a bit dirty still: no warning/error rc, no filename output for the damaged file.
     assert f"repository object {bin_to_hex(chunk.id)} missing, returning {chunk.size} zero bytes." in output
+
+
+def test_extract_existing_directory(archivers, request):
+    # if we extract a directory and there is already a directory at that location,
+    # we should just use the existing directory and not remove/recreate it.
+    archiver = request.getfixturevalue(archivers)
+    cmd(archiver, "repo-create", RK_ENCRYPTION)
+    os.mkdir("input/dir")
+    cmd(archiver, "create", "test", "input")
+    with changedir("output"):
+        # create pre-existing directory:
+        os.makedirs("input/dir", exist_ok=True)
+        st1 = os.stat("input/dir")
+        # extract
+        cmd(archiver, "extract", "test")
+        st2 = os.stat("input/dir")
+    assert st1.st_ino == st2.st_ino