Four centimeters straighter than 17 years ago: The Leaning Tower of Pisa has raised so much, reports the Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra. Overall, the famous landmark in Tuscany has already made 45 centimeters since the mid-nineties, when the rescue operations began.
"It's as if the tower has rejuvenated by two centuries," Salvatore Settis tells the newspaper. He is one of the so-called tower guardians, a group that has the condition of the 58 -meter-high landmark for years in view.
And that Pisa's marble tower looked very old in the past few years, Settis remembers well. The situation was particularly brittle on the so-called Black Saturday in 1995. At that time, the tower was inclined by one millimeter in one night - that was almost as much as the annual average at the time.
Previously, experts had tried it with a rather simple method: They fixed a counterweight of 1000 tons of lead at the foot of the Campanile. In fact, they managed at times to stop further deterioration.
Then came the Black Saturday. And another measure: with caution, under the north side of the tower oblique holes drilled into the ground and there removed soil. The floor slumped and the tower rose to the north. Since 2001 he may be visited again.
They have always tried to compensate for the inclination of the tower, says Settis, according to the "Corriere" report. The main task, however, was to preserve the inclination - without risking the collapse. And without risking the constant flow of Instagram photos that all show only one thing: a tourist who seems to help the leaning tower.