| Soon after the beginning of construction in 1173, Pisa tower's foundation was laid poorly. Construction was stopped and reopened 100 years later. And only then it had become clear that the Pisa tower was “falling” by way of tilting towards the south. From then onwards in 1911 they started regular measurements of the Pisa tower and it was recorded that the tower top was bending by 1.2mm a year. As of today the top of the Pisa tower is tilted 5.3m from the base.
After the cathedral's Pavia bell tower collapsed in 1989, Consorzio Progetto Torre di Pisa entrusted engineers with stabilizing the “falling” tower. Due to the tower's tilt towards various directions in the initial years, it beveled a little, like a banana. Engineers were working on the foundation rather than on the construction hoping that it would return back approximately to 20cm. But that means that the 800 years-old tower would remain “falling”.
The famous “falling” tower (Torre Pe'ldente), a bell tower (Campanile) of the cathedral in Pisa city, is a part of a rare architectural beauty consisting of a baptistery and cemetery. If the “falling” tower were not tilting but standing strictly vertical like any other tower, its glory, most probably, would have been limited to the narrow interests of architects and historians. Whereas owing to its construction flaw, the tower is well known all over the world.
The tower stretches to the height of 55m, and the inscription on it says, that the foundation was laid in 1174. But as the Pisa calendar was one year ahead than the standard one, the actual date for the starting of the construction is considered to be 1173 A.C. The architects of the tower were, Bonanno Pisano and Wilhelm Von Innsbruck, but both had no chance of viewing the completion of their creation. By the way, up to the second half of the 14th century, the tower remained without a belfry at the top.
There were assumptions that the bend was well thought of by the architects in advance - for the sake of displaying their prowess and brilliant architectural ability. But this assumption is not well justified.
Most probably the other assumption is possible: the architects knew that they were building on a very poor foundation and that's why they had already put in a possible slight bend in the construction design.
The “Falling” tower is of a cylindrical shape and soars up with its seven stories (including a belfry). Its six central floors are banded with decorative arcades with a possible influence of Byzantine or Islamic architectural traditions. The issue of Islamic influence is well based because as it is not known whether the idea of a separate bell tower appeared in the Christian church architecture under the influence of Muslim minarets, or on the contrary, the minarets alone with muezzins on the top, called pious for praying, had their origins from Christian bell towers.
Galileo Galilee, the famous astronomer, was born on 1564, in Pisa. According to his own narrations, he used the Pisa tower for his experiments. From the top floor he threw down various objects to demonstrate that their descending speed was independent of their mass.
The famous cathedral ensemble in Pisa is a masterpiece of Medieval Italian architecture. The creation of this tower started in the 1063 century in the city outskirts, with the laying foundation of the edifice which includes white marble campanile, the bell tower and a baptistery. So far from the city square, took shape one of the outstanding works of the Middle Ages, which greatly influenced the development of Italian culture. Located in Pisa cathedral are several tombs of various historic people, among them is the tomb of the German Emperor Henry VII. |
