Today in History: The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened
Though entrance to the tower is now limited to guided tours, hordes of tourists can still be found outside.
On this day in 2001, Italy’s Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean.
In the 12th century, construction began on the bell tower for the cathedral of Pisa, a busy trade centre on the Arno River in western Italy, some 80km from Florence. While construction was still in progress, the tower’s foundations began to sink into the soft, marshy ground, causing it to lean to one side.
Its builders tried to compensate for the lean by making the top stories slightly taller on one side, but the extra masonry required only made the tower sink further. By the time it was completed in 1360, modern-day engineers say it was a miracle it didn’t fall down completely.
Though the cathedral itself and the adjoining baptistry also leaned slightly, it was the Torre Pendente di Pisa, or Leaning Tower of Pisa, that became the city’s most famous tourist attraction. By the 20th century, the 58m-high white marble tower leaned a dramatic 4,5m off the perpendicular.
In the year before its closing in 1990, 1 million people visited the old tower, climbing its 293 weathered steps to the top and gazing out over the green Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) outside. Fearing it was about to collapse, officials appointed a group of 14 archaeologists, architects and soil experts to figure out how to take some – but not all – of the famous tilt away.
Though an initial attempt in 1994 almost toppled the tower, engineers were eventually able to reduce the lean by between 40 and 43cm by removing earth from underneath the foundations. When the tower reopened on 15 December 2001, engineers predicted it would take 300 years to return to its 1990 position.
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