The most famous bell tower in Italy, a monument all Pisans are proud of, a tourist attraction the world over: The Tower of Pisa returns, after 11 years of restoration and works, to the open public.
The Tower is in central and splendid Piazza dei Miracoli, next to the Duomo's fascinating hugeness, its whiteness standing out against the lawn's green, enveloping the whole square; the Battistero, in front of the Duomo's façade, with the wonderful Nicola Pisano pulpit and the Camposanto Monumentale.
The belltower rises 56 metres high and it inclines about 56 metres, with an annual increase of an estimated 1 millimetre. The cause of the progressive slant is to be found in the earth it was build on. Its base rests on soft ground, which is not capable of sustaining large weights and is naturally cause for enormous concern for the tower's future.
Construction of the bell tower was begun in 1173 by the famous architect Bonanno Pisano, who never finished his work but, to seal his unfinished work, he was buried inside the Tower where, last century, the remains of the first great architects sarcophagus were found. Works were then brought to completion by Giovanni di Simone and finished, around 200 years later, by Tommaso Pisano.
Because of the progressive increase of the leaning, in 1990 the Tower was closed to the public, deemed unsafe. Since then it has been object of various studies and of an imposing restructuring, costing around 55 billion lira.
We can state today that the famous Tower, the bell tower of the Pisa Duomo, has been straightened by 12 centimetres. The current reduction of its leaning has brought the Tower to the position it was in at the end of the 1700's, thus creating a security margin for at least another 300 years. T the moment guided visits are possible for groups of 30 people at a time.
APT Pisa
Piazza dei Miracoli - Pisa (In Italian)
Official site of the Pisa Tower
