The Leaning Tower of Pisa -

This is the monument that, among the others of the "Piazza dei Miracoli", stirs
the imagination of everybody, from the old to the young. Firstly we like to give
you some information and events regarding its long history.

Statistics:

Official Name: TORRE PENDENTE DI PISA

Function: Bell Tower (Campanile)
Original Architect: Bonanno Pisano
Architect who realized that the Leaning Tower could not be straightened:
Tomasso di Andrea da Pontedera (1275)
Years Built: 1173-1350

Latitude: 43.7167 (43° 43' 0" N)

Longitude: 10.3833 (10° 22' 60" E)
Elevation of Piazza dei Miracoli: About 6 feet, (2 meters) (DMS)

First Construction Stop: 1178 (War with Firenze)

Year in which lean became obvious: 1178 (Third Story)
Height at which lean became obvious: 10.6 meters (35 ft.)
Level at which Tower Straightens to North: 5 (About 110 meters)
Second Construction Stop: 1185 (War with Firenze)
Later Construction Stop: 1284 (War with Genoa, Major Sea Battle Defeat)

Height: 55.863 meters (185 feet). 8 stories.

Outer Diameter of Base: 15.484 meters
Inner Diameter of Base: 7.368 meters

Weight: 14,700 metric tons

Thickness of Walls at the Base: 8 feet
Direction of Lean: 1173-1250 North, 1272-1997 South

The Tower of Pisa in Pisa, Italy is one of the world's most famous leaning buildings.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Torre Pendente di Pisa
Location: Pisa, Italy
Built: 1173-1350
Architect: Unknown. The tower may have been designed by Bonanno Pisano and
Guglielmo of Innsbruck, Austria or Diotisalvi.
The Tower of Pisa was designed as a bell tower but its main purpose was to promote
the town of Pisa.

It is situated behind the Cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa's Cathedral
Square (Piazza del Duomo) after the Cathedral and the Baptistry.

The foundation of the tower was only three meters thick and the soil underneath was
unstable. A series of wars interrupted the construction for many years.

Construction

Construction of the tower occurred in three stages across 177 years.

The construction of this imposing mass was started in the year 1174 by Bonanno
Pisano. When the tower had reached its third storey the works ceased because it had
started sinking into the ground. The tower remained thus for 90 years.

In 1272 construction resumed under Giovanni di Simone, architect of the

Camposanto. In an effort to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built upper floors
with one side taller than the other. Because of this, the tower is actually curved.[6]
Construction was halted again in 1284, when the Pisans were defeated by the Genoans
in the Battle of Meloria.

The seventh floor was completed in 1319. It was built by Tommaso di Andrea Pisano,
who succeeded in harmonizing the Gothic elements of the bell-chamber with the
Romanesque style of the tower. There are seven bells, one for each note of the
musical major scale. The largest one was installed in 1655. The bell-chamber was
finally added in 1372.

During the long pause, the soil continued to settle. Rather than abandon the project,
builders accommodated the tilt by adding extra height to the upper stories on one side
of the Tower. The extra weight caused the upper part of the Tower to lean in the
opposite direction.

After a phase (1990–2001) of structural strengthening,[7] the tower is currently

undergoing gradual surface restoration, in order to repair visual damage, mostly
corrosion and blackening. These are particularly pronounced due to the tower's age
and its exposure to wind and rain.[8]

Timeline

• On January 5, 1172 Donna Berta di Bernardo, a widow and resident of

the house of dell'Opera di Santa Maria, bequeathed sixty soldi to the Opera
 Campanilis petrarum Sancte Marie. The sum was then used toward the
purchase of a few stones which still form the base of the bell tower.[9]
• On August 9, 1173 the foundations of the Tower were laid.
• Nearly four centuries later Giorgio Vasari wrote : "Guglielmo,
according to what is being said, in [this] year 1174 with Bonanno as sculptor,
laid the foundations of the belltower of the cathedral in Pisa."
• Another possible builder is Gerardo di Gerardo. His name appears as a
witness to the above legacy of Berta di Bernardo as "Master Gerardo", and as
a worker whose name was Gerardo.
• A more probable builder is Diotisalvi, because of the construction
period and the structure's affinities with other buildings in Pisa. But he usually
signed his works, and there is no signature by him in the belltower.
• Giovanni di Simone was heavily involved in the completion of the
tower, under the direction of Giovanni Pisano, who at the time was master
builder of the Opera di Santa Maria Maggiore. He could be the same Giovanni
Pisano who completed the belfry tower.
• Giorgio Vasari indicates that Tommaso di Andrea Pisano was the
designer of the belfry between 1360 and 1370.
• On December 27, 1233 the worker Benenato, son of Gerardo Bottici,
oversaw the continuation of the construction of the belltower.[10]
• On February 23, 1260 Guido Speziale, son of Giovanni, a worker on
the cathedral Santa Maria Maggiore, was elected to oversee the building of the
Tower.[11]
• On April 12, 1264 the master builder Giovanni di Simone and 23
workers went to the mountains close to Pisa to cut marble. The cut stones were
given to Rainaldo Speziale, worker of St. Francesco.[12]

Architect

There has been controversy about the real identity of the architect of the Leaning
Tower of Pisa. For many years, the design was attributed to Guglielmo and Bonanno
Pisano,[13] a well-known 12th-century resident artist of Pisa, famous for his bronze
casting, particularly in the Pisa Duomo. Bonanno Pisano left Pisa in 1185 for
Monreale, Sicily, only to come back and die in his home town. A piece of cast with
his name was discovered at the foot of the tower in 1820, but this may be related to
the bronze door in the façade of the cathedral that was destroyed in 1595. However
recent studies[14] seem to indicate Diotisalvi as the original architect due to the time of
construction and affinity with other Diotisalvi works, notably the bell tower of San
Nicola and the Baptistery, both in Pisa. However, he usually signed his works and
there is no signature by him in the bell tower which leads to further speculation.

This very famous work is of Romanesque style, and as already stated dates back to
the year 1174. Cylindrical in shape it is supplied whit six open galleries. A cornice
separates these galleries one from the other and each presents a series of small arches
fitted on the capitals of the slender columns. In the base there is a series of big blind
arcades with geometrical decorations. In the belfry there is the same design of
arcades as that of the base, with the difference that here, there are, apart from the
reduced proportions, the housings of the bells.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the low side and
56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m
(13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons
(16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer
steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990
and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees,[1][2][3] but the tower now leans at
about 3.99 degrees.[4] This means that the top of the tower stands 3.9 metres
(12 ft 10 in) lower from where it would stand if the structure were perfectly vertical.[5]

The top of the Leaning Tower can be reached by mounting the 294 steps which rise
in the form of a spiral on the inner side of the tower walls.

Pisa Today

Over the centuries there have been many attempts to remove or reduce the tilt. In
1990, an Italian government-appointed special commission determined that the tower
was no longer safe for tourists, closed it off, and started devising ways to make the
building safer.

On January 7, 1990, after over two decades of stabilization studies, the tower was
closed to the public. The bells were removed to relieve some weight, and cables were
cinched around the third level and anchored several hundred metres away. Apartments
and houses in the path of the tower were vacated for safety. The final solution to
prevent the collapse of the tower was to slightly straighten the tower to a safer angle,
by removing 38 cubic metres (50 cu yd) of soil from underneath the raised end. The
tower was straightened by 18 inches (45 centimetres), returning to its 1838 position.
After a decade of corrective reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was
reopened to the public on December 15, 2001, and was declared stable for at least
another 300 years.[18]
John Burland, a professor of soil mechanics, came up with the system of removing
soil from the north side in order to make the building settle back into the ground and
thus reduce the tilt. This worked and the tower was reopened to tourism in 2001.

In May 2008, after the removal of another 70 metric tons (77 short tons) of earth,
engineers announced that the Tower had been stabilized such that it had stopped
moving for the first time in its history. They stated it would be stable for at least 200
years.

In June 2010 Guinness World Records certified the Capital Gate building in Abu
Dhabi, UAE as the "World's Furthest Leaning Man-made Tower".[22] The Capital Gate
tower has an 18-degree slope, almost five times more than the Pisa Tower; however
that tower has been deliberately engineered to slant.

Today, the Tower of Piza leans at a 3.97 degree angle.