Leaning Tower of Pisa (French)

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is one of the most famous and strangest historical and tourist attractions in Italy because of its tilted shape. It is located in the city of Pisa. Its construction began in 1173 AD, and work on it took approximately 200 years due to the inclination that occurred in it after the start of construction, which amounted to 5.5 degrees. After the restoration work that took place from 1990 to 2001, the angle of inclination became 3.66 degrees.

An ancient historical monument

Although it consists of only 8 floors and is approximately 56 meters high, the construction of this historical landmark took about two centuries.

It is most likely, according to the accounts transmitted by a number of sources, that the total period of construction of this edifice, which dates back to the Middle Ages, was approximately 200 years, as the majority of researchers set the date of its foundation in the year 1173 AD, and because of the long period of its construction, large numbers of architects, sculptors, and workers succeeded in building it. Building.

Interest in it continued after that by experts and specialists whose main concern was to straighten its distortion and try to save it from collapse. It is even said that the Italian military commander Benito Mussolini, who ruled Italy in the period between 1922 and 1943, ordered engineers in 1934 to straighten the Tower of Pisa, but they did not. They did not succeed in that.

Multiple writings indicate that the tower has resisted, for hundreds of years, the harshness of the land on which it was built, and that it was spared destruction by US Army weapons during World War II, unlike some other historical monuments surrounding it that did not survive the fires of war.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is located in the Italian city of Pisa (Getty)

the site

The Leaning Tower of Pisa sits on the throne of the Italian city of Pisa in the Tuscany region in the northern part of central Italy.

Pisa is located in a quiet, sparsely populated province near the Ligurian Sea. It is bordered to the east by Florence, about 80 kilometers east, and to the south by the province of Grosseto, while the city is bordered to the north by the province of Lucca, and to the west by Tuscany.

The Tower of Pisa is located in the square known as Miracle Square, behind the cathedral, and it was the last historical landmark built there, because it was originally a church bell tower.

This architectural building is surrounded, in addition to the Cathedral of Pisa, by a number of historical buildings, such as the Cathedral Museum located on the eastern side of Miracle Square, and the Baptistery of Pisa, which was built in 1152 AD, in addition to a garden with statues and corridors containing shrines in the Campo Santo cemetery, where icons were buried. Aristocracy.

Construction history

Most of the reports written about the Tower of Pisa indicate that its history dates back to the 12th century AD, specifically to August 1173 AD.

Although historians are unable to determine the architect who began construction of the tower, several writings indicate that the Italian architect and sculptor Bonanno Pisano began its construction, and also indicate other engineers who succeeded in completing the task.

It took 199 years to build the Tower of Pisa (European News Agency)

The construction of the tower went through three basic stages. Construction began from the first floor, which was surrounded by 15 white marble columns with classic capitals and traditional arches. Work on the first and second floors continued for 5 years.

Specialized reports indicate that the construction of the third floor began in 1178 AD, but it was noticed at that time that the tower began to lean toward the southeastern side by about 5 degrees due to the nature of the soft soil where it was built. The construction process was halted to save the tower from collapse and help its floor to calm down and gain its soil. stability.

Because of this forced stop imposed by the spongy nature of the soil, and also for political reasons related to the war that Pisa fought with its neighbors, the construction of the third floor alone took 90 years.

Starting in 1272 AD, the engineer Giovanni di Simone was commissioned to complete the construction of the tower, and it reached the seventh floor. He worked to reduce the degree of inclination on the remaining floors of the tower, and was subjected to many criticisms for his inability to adjust the tower's inclination, but in return he succeeded in building floors and the height of the tower reached 7 floors, preventing construction from stopping completely.

After about another 60 years of cessation of work, the architect Pisatomaso Pisano completed the construction of this landmark in 1372 AD.

Label

The Leaning Tower of Pisa took its name from its shape, the degree of its deviation on the vertical plane, and the name of the city in which it was built. It also took the name of the bell of the city’s cathedral because of its proximity to this church and was used to embrace its bell.

There are those who call it the Marvel Tower, and other names that have made this historical edifice a landmark that violates all recognized laws of engineering. Everything built on soft ground and at a critical height is assumed to be doomed to collapse.

The Tower of Pisa was built to serve as a bell tower for the nearby Pisa Cathedral (Getty)

recipe

The Leaning Tower of Pisa was built of white marble in the Roman style. From the outside, it looks like a cylindrical stone building with a facade of gray-white limestone brought from the city of San Giuliano. It contains balconies and huge, solid columns that form its supports, and above it is a room for the bells of the cathedral church.

The tower is devoid of rooms inside, and its middle part consists of a hollow cylinder with an internal façade of decorated Verocana stone.

The Tower of Pisa consists of 8 floors or floors connected by a spiral staircase, consisting of 300 steps and also has an electric elevator.

The Tower of Pisa is not the only leaning tower in the world. There is a long list of more inclined towers, such as the Sorhausen Bell Tower in the German state of Saxony, with a tilt of up to 5.7 degrees. However, the Tower of Pisa is the most famous leaning building in the world.

Efforts continued to save it, and work to modify its shape to return it to a vertical tower did not stop, but all attempts failed and were in vain.

Over time, the degree of inclination of the Tower of Pisa decreased from the previous 5.5 degrees to 3.99 degrees, and thanks to the restoration work that took place between 1990 and 2001, the inclination decreased to approximately 3.66 degrees, and it was noted that these works paid off and the top of the tower was displaced horizontally.

The Tower of Pisa consists of 8 floors (floors) connected by a spiral staircase (Reuters)

Economy

The inclined shape of the Tower of Pisa makes it a major attraction for tourists, both from inside and outside Italy.

Six floors of the Tower of Pisa are devoted to enjoying the natural scenery of either the city of Pisa or the villages close to it, which makes it a window of tourism not only in Pisa, but in all of Italy.

The tower attracts large numbers of tourists, estimated at millions annually, who come from all over the world and from Italian cities to visit the tower and the towers close to it, such as the Clock Tower, Knights Square, and dozens of churches, in addition to other nearby historical monuments filled with the secrets of ancient Roman civilization.

The city of Pisa takes its due from this tourist movement because it is considered one of the ancient Italian historical cities, and is known for its numerous ancient buildings that have become famous international tourist attractions.

Flags

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is associated with the name of the Italian architect and sculptor Bonanno Pisano, who laid the foundation stone for this historic edifice, according to the testimony of a number of historians.

He is a son of the city of Pisa, where he grew up and spent many years of his life. It is said that after the construction of the tower began, Pisano traveled to the town of Monreale in Sicily, to make the doors of the cathedral there, and immediately after his return to Pisa he died and was buried at the foot of the tower. In 1820, his stone coffin was discovered, and in 1838 an imprint of a metal plate was found that also bore his name.

The inclined shape of the Tower of Pisa made it a major attraction for tourists, both from inside and outside Italy (Anatolia Agency)

Among the notables whose names are associated with the Tower of Pisa is the engineer Giovanni De Simone, who decided to complete Pisano's journey.

In the year 1272 AD, Giovanni took on the task of completing the construction of the Tower of Pisa and tried to straighten its crookedness and return it to its natural vertical position, but he did not succeed in doing so, and the work stopped again.

There is also the engineer Pisatomaso Pisano, who took the torch and tried to work on this landmark, after more than 60 years of cessation. He was credited with completing the construction of the seventh floor in 1319 AD and adding the bell room, and then finally completing the construction of the tower in 1372 AD.

Base stations

In 1990, the Italian government decided to close the Tower of Pisa, whose inclination had reached 5.5 degrees, for fear of its collapse, as happened in the bell tower of Pavia Cathedral in 1989. It summoned a group of Italian and foreign experts in the fields of engineering, soil study, restoration, and others, to discuss ways to save the tower using various equipment. The weights are made of lead alloy and thick steel ropes, and several techniques are used to ensure the stability of the building.

Experts confirmed that the tower continued to tilt at a greater angle than ever before, and concluded that it was no longer safe for tourists and visitors. It was necessary to reduce its angle of inclination; It closed for 11 years.

During this period of restoration and maintenance work, the team of international specialists succeeded in returning the tower to its previous position by placing lead weights on the north side and slowly removing tons of sand from the soil under the north side, because the tower was tilted towards the south, and in February 2000, it was placed More lead on the north side to adjust the inclination.

Italian scientist Galileo Galilei (Shutterstock)

By June 2000, the tilt was corrected and it was restored to the angle it was at in 1870, and with the completion of restoration operations in June 2001, the tower returned to the angle it was at in 1838.

The Tower of Pisa was officially handed over to the city authorities, but it was forbidden to visit it and tourists were forced to wait more than 5 months, until special safety barriers were placed and the tower was opened again in 2001.

an experience

One of the anecdotes told about the Leaning Tower of Pisa is that it was the site of the most famous physical scientific experiment in human history. In addition to being a place for the church bell and a tourism destination par excellence, it had other goals.

Reports indicate that the Italian scientist Galileo Galilei, professor of mathematics at the University of Pisa, used the Tower of Pisa as a place to carry out a new scientific experiment, at the end of the 16th century AD.

Galilei dropped two pieces of different masses from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. His purpose in this experiment was to prove the scientific hypothesis that the time of free fall does not depend on the mass, and that objects fall with the same acceleration.

It is an experiment that refuted Aristotle's theory of gravity, which was prevalent at that time, and which said that the speed of falling objects depends on their masses. This new scientific fact was taken by Vincenzo Viviani, Galilei's student, to be recorded in a book he wrote in 1654 and published in 1717.

Source: websites