Why the leaning tower of Pisa? The height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

If we talk about the famous bell towers of the world, then the most famous is, undoubtedly, the Leaning Tower of Pisa. In what city is the slope of the Campanile still 3 ° 54 '? This degree is quite noticeable only at high objects. And the bell tower froze in its fall. Undoubtedly, the city of Pisa has a lot of other attractions. It is not for nothing that UNESCO included in its World Heritage List (under number 395) the whole area of Prato de Miracoli. Its name translates as "field of miracles". Both the Baptistery of San Giovanni, and the Camposanto Cemetery, and the Duomo Cathedral, dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin - are magical creations of medieval and Renaissance architecture. But the bell tower of Santa Maria Assunta is something special. All tourists consider it necessary to visit Prato de Mirakoli in order to "prop it up" with my finger (I, Batman, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which is the most common type of photo). But in this article we will figure out why the bell tower falls, what its height is and what interesting stories are associated with it.

City of Pisa and its sights

The cathedral undeservedly stands in the "shadow" of its famous bell tower. It must necessarily go in, as well as in the baptism of John the Baptist. But one area of Prato de Mirakoli city attractions are not exhausted. The churches - Francis of Assisi, Santa Maria della Spina, San Paolo a Ripa d'Amo, Caterina, Frediano, Stefana, San Michele, Sant Sixtus and others - are fine examples of the Italian Renaissance. You should also visit the ancient monastery of St. Anthony. The galleries and palaces of Pisa deserve special attention: the Royal Palazzo Reale, the Medici, the Lanfranchi, Agostini, Orologio, Caravena, Borgo-Stretto. The city of Pisa is proud of one of Europe's oldest universities. The complex of educational buildings is also a historical landmark. Quite a lot in the city and museums. The most famous of them: San Matteo, Villa di Corliano, Delle Sinope, Opera del Duomo, arsenals of the Medici and Fortezza di San Gallo.

Why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tilted: a legend

There is a beautiful legend about the slow "fall" of the bell tower. Say, more than eight hundred years ago, in 1173, the construction of the Campanile took master Bonanno Pisano. He created a wonderful marble tower, decorated it with arches and reliefs. But local authorities for some reason refused to pay the architect the promised fee. Then the annoyed master said to his creation: "Follow me!" And moved to the south. And - about a miracle! - the bell tower bent in the same direction in the same hour. The frightened consuls immediately paid for everything they owed by arrangement. Campanile froze and in this form there are already eight centuries. What is the truth of it? Only the name of the wizard. But Bonanno Pisano managed to erect only the three lower floors of the high bell tower. And it was completed only two hundred years later, in 1360. Sculptures decorated in the fifteenth century, and bells - a century later.

An error that has become a tourist attraction

It's time to answer the question of why the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tilted. For a long time it was thought that this was the architect's plan. But this is not so. The architect originally, still in the plans for construction, made a mistake in the calculations. At the supposed height of the tower, he conceived a very small (only three meters wide) foundation. And besides, I did not check the ground at the construction site. The muddy and clay soil under the southern extremity of the tower began to blur and sag. The error was discovered five years after the construction began, when the third columnar ring was close to completion (1178). The slope of the unfinished campaign was at that time small. After all, the three-story building was only eleven meters high. The roll from the vertical axis was four centimeters. But this circumstance caused Bonanno Pisano and his assistant Guillermo from Innsbruck to quit their jobs and hide in an unknown direction.

Attempts to complete the campaignan

The problem was not so much in the bank as in the trend of growth of the deviation from the vertical axis. The work was suspended, but not so much because of difficulties with construction, but because of the war. In 1233, the fourth floor of the Campanile was completed. After several more wars, the city consuls in the fourteenth century decided to resume construction. Roll at that time grew by half a meter. Giovanni di Simoni took charge of the case. Instead of studying the question and understanding why the Leaning Tower of Pisa was tilted, he began to build the fifth floor. The construction clearly risked crashing down, and the master refused to continue construction. After all, in terms of Bonanno Pisano campaigned the main cathedral of Pisa was conceived as a ten-story building with a belfry on the eleventh and a roof on the twelfth. Thus, the entire structure, in order to glorify God and the city, was to have a height of ninety-eight meters.

Attempts to correct the error

In 1350, the famous architect Tomaso di Andrea ventured to complete the work of his predecessors. At that time, the roll was already ninety-two centimeters. The architect studied the question of why the Leaning Tower of Pisa was tilted, and realized that it was in the ground. The soil can not be changed by man, but one can influence the construction plans. And he made some adjustments in his calculations. The next floor of the tower, he erected by eleven centimeters more from the inclined side, than asked a certain counterweight to the roll. Master abandoned the original idea of too high a campaign. He limited himself to eight tiers. The building was not crowned with a roof, but with bells of bronze. But this rejection of the four floors only distanced the imminent fall. The gradient of the slope of the Campanile has been steadily growing every year.

Belfry and Galileo

Do not forget that the falling Leaning Tower inside is equipped with a staircase with 294 steps. And now you can climb them to admire the fascinating panorama of the city. But much earlier than tourists to the tower rose Galileo Galilei. In the presence of two professors of the natural sciences of the University of Pisa, he threw objects of varying severity from an inclined bell-tower to prove the theory of gravity.

Salvation Campaign

Meanwhile, the beautiful creation of the Romanesque style continued to deviate from the vertical axis at a rate of one millimeter per year. In the twentieth century, scientists made a verdict: if you do not take early action, the structure will collapse in forty or fifty years. Since 1994, a whole campaign was launched to save this landmark. The height of the Tower of Pisa at 56.7 meters excludes any possibility of external support. Moreover, such a skeleton would inevitably ruin the appearance of this ingenious creation. So scientists took up the root cause of the "fall of the tower" - the ground. In the late 90's as a temporary measure on the northern part of the basement of the building put lead bars. This counterbalance slowed the fall and even reduced the roll by half a degree. But the rescuers did not stop there. They gradually, in centimeters, removed soft clay soils from the south side and replaced them with a hard ground. As a result of these works, which ended only in 2010, the slope of the Leaning Tower of Pisa declined from 5 ° 30 '(in the 1990s) to the present 3 ° 54'. It was announced to the general public that the architectural monument had ceased to "fall".

Beauty Campanile

In fairness, it should be noted that in the world there are many structures with a clearly visible slope. For example, the degree of the roll of the ancient Gothic church of Zurhuizen in East Friesland (Germany) is 1.22 degrees more than that of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. And on this occasion the German temple fell into the Guinness Book. But the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whose photo has long been the "calling card" of the city, is also incredibly beautiful. It was conceived as a hollow cylinder made of stone. Carrara marble of two shades - white and gray - makes it like a lace. Classical capitals crown the colonnade of an elongated ground floor. All the following six tiers are decorated with exquisite arcades and galleries. Timpan over the entrance is crowned with the sculpture of the Madonna and the baby cutter Andrea Guardi.