Leaning Tower of Pisa

Written by Philippa Burne, UK, August 2011

RECOMMENDATION Keywords:
Good for Kids, Good for Kids, Tip - What to See & Do, Tip - What to See & Do, Monument - Historical, Monument - Historical

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Comment from Philippa Burne

In the early twelfth century an Italian architect made a mistake. He built a tower on a piece of unstable soil. It was probably not totally his fault – those commissioning the bell tower wanted it to be close to the cathedral, and building methods back then were not quite what they are now. Still, historical record leaves us unsure exactly who was responsible for the mistake, which saw the bell tower of Pisa begin to lean only a few years after its lower levels were built.

Wisely, no one deemed it necessary to pull it down and start again somewhere more stable, they just left it for a while and went off to war, leaving the remainder of the building project to become someone else's' problem years later. Sure enough, peace reigned again and about a century later a confident set of builders added a few extra bricks on the subsiding side to straighten the tower as it grew upwards. Not entirely successfully but it didn’t fall over which was a good result.

Editor's Note: This recommendation was taken from our Tuscany Things To Do blog. Visit the original post to continue reading the full post and to learn more about things to do in Tuscany.

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