History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa

The famous Leaning Tower of Pisa impresses everyone who visits it. It is located in the city of Pisa in Italy and its structure sits in Piazza dei Miracoli (Cathedral Square). Visitors who are not aware of its history might wonder why a large task reflects poor civil engineering. The tower stands next to two impressive buildings, the Camposanto and the Duomo the Baptistry.

An Italian sculptor named Bonanno Pisano designed it in 1174. The Leaning Tower of Pisa slowly began sinking right after the laborers started building it around 800 years back. When the third floor was being constructed, the workers started to realize that the Tower was slightly leaning. The problems occurred because of the poor choice of location to build the Tower.

Because of the shaky soil of estuary on which it stands, the structure started to sink so badly that led the leader to halt its construction for 90 years. Giovanni di Simone and Tommano Simone placed a belfry at the top of the tower in the 14th century. Then, the Tower started it characteristic tilt which captured the imagination of public.

The Tower demonstrates the dynamics of different elements that caused it to lean with the passage of time. The excessive weight on various areas of the soil caused continuing shift that continues till today.

Symbolizing with a bell tower, the Roman design bears a cylindrical shape characterized by six open galleries. Considered as a visual masterpiece for a long time, the design is spectacular. It is located in galleries separated by series of arches. The base of the tower is lined by blind geometrically designed arcades. Same arcades are present in the belfry with bells inside.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is loved by many over the years because of its grandeur design. It is a testament to great Italian architecture. After its completion, many engineers, architects and other great minds tried to halt the leaning.

Engineers made an effort in 1934 by installing a device to measure the tower's two directional tilts. Then, they made holes into the foundation and injected grout weighing 80 tons to further stabilize it. The effort was a failure and the tilt increased by an amount of one and half inch movement. All following efforts failed to halt the tower's lean until efforts started in 1994 to correct the lean.

The government closed the Tower to the public in 1990 because of safety concerns due to the leaning. This decision resulted in tourist revenue loss. As the lean of the tower deteriorated, the officials started to find a complete solution to the problem.

The stabilization of tower was aided by laying counterweights on the north side. Cast slabs were put in place to aid the reverse of the lean. Methods of soil extraction resulted in a further decrease in the lean. Efforts continued in 1999 to correct the lean of the Tower.

So far it is a fact that the engineers can't completely remove the lean, or the tourists will stop visiting.