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He's not a beauty, at least not yet.
It looks greyish and battered, the tower of the upper church in Bad Frankenhausen.
The chronicle names April 25, 1382 as the day of the completion of the Church of Our Lady on the Mountain.
The main tower had four small side towers.
What nobody knew at the time: According to geologists, the entire Kyffhäuser Mountains, to which Bad Frankenhausen belongs, are full of holes like Swiss cheese.
The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa had been standing for a long time in 1382: beautiful and admired even then.
When it began to tip over in 1185, twelve years after the foundation stone was laid and the third floor was being built, work was stopped for 100 years.
The last four floors were then built with a smaller angle of inclination to compensate for the inclination, which is currently 3.97 degrees and 3.90 meters overhang.
Leaning towers are fascinating to find these days.
In Abu Dhabi, they even deliberately built the Capital Gate Tower 160 meters high and inclined at an angle of 18 degrees.
The Capital Gate Tower in Abu Dhabi is intentionally built at an angle
Source: pa / prisma / Raga Jose Fuste
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For the people of Frankenhausen, however, the tilt of their tower seemed strange at the time.
However, it was not taken as a sign of God.
On the contrary: the local countess attributed it to the consequences of the Thirty Years' War - in order to obtain tax breaks.
“Rejected” was the answer in 1640.
Almost 400 years later, when it came to renovation funds for the umpteenth time, the rejection sounded like this: “We do not invest in crooked towers,” said Thuringia's building minister Christian Carius.
Bad Frankenhausen saved the church from demolition
But the Bad Frankenhausers did not give up over the centuries, and even fended off a demolition several times.
The roof of the church was removed, whereupon there were only open-air services in the 1960s and 1970s, before the complete closure by the building authorities was ordered in 1984 due to the risk of collapse.
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The tower stands on layers of water-soluble plaster, so the lowering was only logical.
No expert could determine the exact tipping point, but they calculated six centimeters more overhang per year and found that the tower would not collapse at least until 2014.
A letter to the colleagues in Pisa with the request for cooperation in matters of know-how was answered with a formal letter somewhat snooty, in any case refused.
In 2011, a city council resolution changed the ownership structure: the city bought the church from the church - for one euro.
When illuminated, the leaning tower of the church "Our Lady of the Mountains" comes into its own at night
Source: pa / dpa / Martin Schutt
For the previous owners, the church was a hopeless renovation, for the Bad Frankenhausener an affair of the heart.
Especially for Bärbel Köllen, who was city councilor until 2019 and is now chairwoman of the Upper Church Association.
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For years, the 80-year-old campaigned for the preservation of the unique architectural monument, despite all adversities.
Mayor Matthias Strejc, who has even given his leaning tower the trademark ®, fevered with her: "Bärbel, you have to witness the reopening as chairwoman!"
“We did, did, and fought!
Everything! “, Remembers Bärbel Köllen.
But in vain, it seemed.
Until the hoped-for miracle came: “The member of the Bundestag responsible for the region put the Upper Church on the list of buildings of national importance, which was accompanied by 703,000 euros in funding for stabilization.
The church was saved! "
Tourists from Pisa admire the Leaning Tower
Entering the tower and nave - apart from a small fenced off area - is still forbidden, but around 200,000 guests per year still come to the town of 10,000 inhabitants to marvel at the tower of the upper church.
Among them are tourists from Pisa who “want to see the still leaning tower”, says Bärbel Köllen.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is particularly earthquake-proof
It is crooked and precisely because of that it is one of the biggest tourist magnets in Europe.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is not entirely safe, one might think.
But it is precisely his inclination that turns out to be his greatest strength.
Source: WELT / Christin Brauer
But visitors also come from far away.
“We even had a couple from Australia who included our upper church tower as a sight on their European trip!” Architecture professors and students also travel to Bad Frankenhausen for an on-site visit.
The misalignment can be seen from everywhere with the naked eye, but for an impressive photo it is best from the south, from Bornstrasse.
The city guide speaks confidently of the “leaning tower in the world”.
“Officially,” says Bärbel Köllen, “we don't say that.” Because there is a 27 meter high church tower in East Friesland, which is listed in the “Guinness Book of Records” as the most unintentionally inclined tower in the world: Suurhusen has an incline of 5.19 degrees , the upper church only 4.93.
The "Guinness Book of Records" lists the church tower in Suurhusen as the most unintentionally inclined tower in the world
Source: pa / Udo Bernhart
Due to its height, however, the Frankenhausen tower with 4.60 meters overhang from the perpendicular is clearly more slanted than the East Frisian tower with 2.47 meters.
And so “The Leaning Tower® of Bad Frankenhausen” is called “the most crooked tallest church tower in the world” on the official website.
“Now,” says the committed Bärbel Köllen, “we have developed a tourist concept and advertised an architectural competition.” An office from Berlin will restore the nave with lots of glass so that the historic foundation walls can be seen.
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Even the upper church tower should be accessible again by 2023.
Then you can not only marvel at the sloping monument from the outside, but also the perspective from above.
You can tell Bärbel Köllen was very happy.
As hopeless as their fight for the world's tallest leaning tower seemed in the meantime - in the end it was worth it.
Information:
bad-frankenhausen.de;
oberkirchturm.de;
thueringen-enthaben.de
Source: WORLD infographic