In an attempt to straighten the tower, the top three floors curved in the opposite direction of the lean. Construction was interrupted at the height of the third open tier of columns due to subsidence and only resumed in 1275 when a further three levels were added. Trouble over the tower’s stability started early. The Tower of Pisa’s first foundation stone was laid on August 9, 1173, “thanks to the donation of 60 coins made by a widow named Berta, for the construction of the bell tower of our cathedral,” the Archbishop of Pisa Giovanni Paolo Benotto said during Wednesday’s press conference. Now, experts say its future is “bright,” with satellite and terrestrial surveillance currently keeping tabs on even the slightest shift in its position, making the famous bell tower one of the most monitored monuments in the world. In the early ’90s the tower, the centerpiece of a UNESCO World Heritage site, reached a lean of 4.5 degrees and fears for its stability led to an international effort to stop it from toppling over, with work lasting eight years from 1993. “Today the bell tower is a stable monument,” Andrea Maestrelli, the president of Opera della Primaziale Pisana (OPA), the 1,000-year-old body that looks after the cathedral complex that includes the tower, said Wednesday at a press conference outlining events to celebrate its anniversary. Added in the Gods & Kings expansion pack.Īdded in the Brave New World expansion pack.Pisa, Italy (CNN) - The Tower of Pisa was once feared on the brink of collapse as the lean that made it such a popular landmark threatened its very existence.īut this week, as the monument celebrated its 850th birthday, the tilting monument’s future appearances in jokey tourist photos was assured for years to come as its guardians gave it a clean bill of health.
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