After intervention, Pisa’s famous tower is ‘leaning’ a bit less

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a bit less these days thanks to a 17-year old intervention

The most famous symbol of the city of Pisa, Italy, is its leaning tower. But after it started leaning a bit too much, scientists intervened between 1993 and 2001, and the tower is now starting to straighten out a little.

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Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a bit less

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is leaning a little less, thanks to a scientific intervention about eighteen years ago. A group of scientists is ready to declare partial victory in their effort to straighten out one of the world’s quirkiest landmarks. They recently confirmed the tower is leaning 4 centimeters less than before, and that the building will be stable for another 200 years.

Let’s back up, for those of you who might not know about the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The seven-story tower is the bell tower associated with the Pisa Cathedral. It took 199 years to build. Work began on August 14, 1173. Let me say that again, August 14, 1173, and it was finished in the year 1372. And it isn’t even straight.

The tower actually began to sink on the south side after they reached the second floor in the year 1178. Pisa is located on the Mediterranean Sea and has a soft subsoil; the three-meter foundation was not enough to stabilize even a two-story structure, much less the seven stories the tower would eventually become. Construction on the tower was halted for almost a century while the city of Pisa was engaged in distracting battles with other nearby city-states; this was way before Italy was a country. It’s a good thing they paused, though, because the 96-year gap in construction allowed the ground to settle around the base of the tower, so that the structure could be completed.

Even so, after it was finished, the tower was leaning toward the south. Since it was just a bell tower, nobody had to live in it and it worked just fine. But ever since its construction, it has leaned farther and farther to one side, essentially falling down in slow motion, one or two millimeters a year further off center. By 1993, the tower was leaning six degrees, or 13 feet off the perpendicular.

There have been several attempts to stabilize and correct the tower’s lean over the years, but none was successful until a stabilization effort between 1993 and 2001. The stabilization project was complex, but is somewhat easy to picture in your mind. The tower is leaning because the soil underneath it is uneven. It’s leaning toward the south, so scientists decided to remove soil from underneath the north side. They dug wells under the foundation, and drained the wells of water. This created cavities, or holes in the ground, under the north side, allowing the weight of the tower to push down on the north side.

This was combined with efforts to reinforce the foundation, harness the monument with large steel cables, and pull it a little bit toward the north, so the building would push down on the north side.

The effort took ten years and thirty million euros to complete. And it looks like it worked. There is a committee of scientists that monitors the tower’s lean and they said it has moved back another four centimeters and the tower is no longer in immediate danger of falling over. That’s a relief. They said the tilt is back to where it was in about the 1800s. They think it will continue to straighten out a little bit, but that eventually it will resume its tilt toward the south. As a result, the scientists believe, the tower will be safe for about another 200 years, after which another generation would have to restore it again.

That would be good for Pisa’s economy, since the tower attracts about three million visitors every year. The mayor of Pisa has said that he’s delighted the tower will be saved—but also quite happy that it’s not going to be straight. As one of the scientists working on that project said, the tower could probably be straightened out, but who wants that? The tower was born leaning, he said, and leaning it shall remain.

So that explains why I was not able to go to the top. I went to Italy when I was about 12 years old, I think, and that would have been right about when they closed it for renovations in 1993. I went as part of a school trip and I have some photos of my younger self standing in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But I never went inside, and that’s probably why—it was closed for renovations. I’m glad the tower will still be standing—and still leaning—for generations to come.

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