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The Leaning tower of Pisa is called Torre Pendente di Pisa in Italian. It was built in stages, starting in 1173, and finishing in 1350. (They kept stopping the building while they fought wars). It is a very old tower! It was designed as a campanile, to hold bells which would ring out over the city. Only five years after building had started, when they were up to the third storey and 10 metres high, the builders could see that the tower was actually leaning over. This is probably because the ground underneath it is soft, and not very stable. The final tower is nearly 56 metres high, and with a diameter of 15 and a half metres at the base. |
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As the tower kept being built, the architects tried to straighten it up by building one side higher. So at the fifth storey it starts leaning in a slightly different direction. At first, it used to lean to the North, but the tower now leans to the South. Architects realized that it could never be straightened. In 1934, in an attempt to stop the tower leaning further, they injected cement into the base. Unfortunately this did not work, and it actually made the lean worse. Tourists used to be able to climb up the tower, but it is no longer safe, and they are not allowed to. Huge cables are used to hold the tower and stop it from collapsing totally. In the past, it has also had huge lead weights hung from the side to stop it falling. It now leans more than five metres away from the vertical! |
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