This work of imperfection is now a world heritage site and one of the most visited monuments in the world!
How sometimes a defect or a flaw makes it your or someone else’s or something’s biggest asset!
Imagine travelling over 700 km both ways from Rome just to see a building which in practical sense is actually falling!
Luckily it is safe for the next 200 years!
That is the Leaning tower of PISA!
By the way, the tower has been leaning from 1178! And now the greatest discovery is that it is straitening! Then again who would want to see a straight tower of PISA!
Which is why the tower has been officially allowed to lean!
So apparently the construction of the Tower began in 1173. Originally designed to be a bell tower, it stood upright for over 5 years, but when the third floor was completed in 1178 it began to lean!
The thing is the foundation of the tower, which is only 3-meter deep, was built on a dense clay mixture. This mix impacted the soil and furthermore the clay was not strong enough to hold the tower upright. As a result the weight of the tower began to diffuse downward until it had found the weakest point!
Due to this problem, construction works stopped for 100 years. The government decided to focus on its war with Genoa and hope that the soil would settle in the meantime.
Then another Engineer tried his hand at correction but the lean got bigger!
Engineer Giovanni di Simone started to add more floors to the tower and tried to compensate for the original lean by making one side of the upper floors taller than the other. This only caused the tower to lean over even more!
Other engineers still unbothered by the lean further added more floors and a bell tower! Adding height and yes! More lean!
The mistakes and leans continued even through 1838 when architect Alessandro Della Gherardesca, dug a pathway at the base of the tower to allow people to admire the intricately crafted base. This caused the tower to lean even more, probably due to the digging of its base!
Then again you would think so much lean would have made the tower to fall!
The real astonishing fact is that the tower in spite of being a little tizzy all the time for so many years still stood its ground! In fact it even withstood the world war when its other sober and straight mates fell!
In fact when American soldiers invaded Pisa, they were ordered to destroy all buildings as to prevent enemy snipers to find suitable places to hide. There were no exceptions to this rule, and many buildings were blown up everyday, as the US forces advanced over the Italian countryside. However a retreat took place shortly after the arrival of the Americans, making unnecessary to destroy the Leaning Tower of Pisa!
Twenty years after the end of the war Italy asked help to avoid the Leaning Tower from toppling. They didn’t want the tower to lose its leaning though, because it is now the symbol of the city, a landmark loved by tourists from all over the world. As a temporary measure engineers and architects installed a leaden counterweight of 800 tonnes!
After that, no other stabilization work was performed since that was the first time that the leaning correction not only worked; it went one step further! In the year 2013, engineers that are monitoring the Tower reported that the straightening motion hadn’t stopped yet, and the monument leaned back an additional 2.5cm!
The lean is what makes this tower special! The greatest flaw you could ever have in a building has now made this one the most famous in the world!
The designer of the leaning tower can now rest in PEACE! or rather lean in peace!
Designer reminds me of Pingali Venkayya; the amazingly talented designer of our flag!
Now lean and fall on the bed and sleep!
Shubh ratri!
ramadocblog 