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History
The Bell Tower of Pisa
by Margaret Etherton
In the center of a country that is shaped like a boot is very tall tower, which is famous all over the world. It is not the tallest tower in the world nor is it the oldest tower, but it is still famous - famous for almost falling down! Everyone who visits Italy wants to see the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Everyone wants to know its history. Why it is leaning? How far is it leaning? What is the possibility of it toppling over? And how scary is it standing on the top of a tippling tower sixty meters above the ground?
On the top level of the Leaning Tower is a belfry. Set in the belfry are seven bronze bells for calling the people to the cathedral next door for prayer. So the Leaning Tower is really a bell tower! Construction of the tower began in the twelfth century. By the time the builders reached the third storey it started leaning. The land and soil was marshy and engineers of the day did not know so much about foundations and soil dynamics as they do today. It leaned so far that work had to stop for a hundred years. Many times the work started again as people wanted to see the grey and white marble and limestone tower completed. At one time, wedges of stone were placed on the sinking side of the tower to compensate for the lean. Alas, this only made the problem worse!
Finally, the project was completed in 1370. But after six hundred years, the weathering of the soft limestone, the pollution, and the extra heavy blocks caused the tower to sink nearly three meters underground and to lean five degrees away from the perpendicular. It was too dangerous to climb up to the top as it was close to toppling over! Fortunately in the 1990's, a team of engineers stopped it from collapsing further, but to this day the tower looks precarious with a lean of 11 feet!
The first sight of the bell tower is a shock because it leans so far. It stands like a castle's battlement beside the cathedral in a large grassy quadrangle. The marble is not white, more off-white, like the Taj Mahal. (If it was white it would probably hurt your eyes too much.) Tiny pillars and arches support each of the second to the seventh levels. On the thick manicured lawns around the tower tourists sprawl, children leapfrog, and toddlers waddle.
The climb to the top of the Leaning Tower is a bit hazardous. The steps first ascend, but then they level off and as you turn the curve in the spiral, you are suddenly facing downwards! Further into the spiral you rise again - up, down, up, down - like a crazy staircase at an amusement park. Each step is scooped into the shape of a bowl, the soft stone worn away by the shoe leather of tourists over hundreds of years.
From the top of the tower you can admire the green square below, the red-roofed stone houses in all directions, and the purple hills beyond. So few places exist, where you can stand so high and see 360 degrees at one time.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is set in a quadrangle called Campo dei Miracoli - Field of Miracles. Is this because it is a miracle that the tower is still standing on such marshy land? Or is it because its beauty is miraculous? You will have to go to see it for yourself one day. And if you are brave, you might climb the wonky, uneven staircase of the tippling tower up to the very top!
Bibliography
Schrady, Nicholas. Tilt: A Skewed History of the Tower of Pisa, New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
Internet sites:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/pisa/interventions.html
http://torre.duomo.pisa.it/
Margaret Etherton is a teacher, tutor and writer. She has taught a range of subjects, such as reading, writing, mathematics and computers to people of all ages - from small kids to seniors. Her publishing credits include over twenty fiction and non-fiction articles for Australian School Magazines. Many of her stories have been created about animals from an interesting viewpoint or with a twist in the telling. Margaret lives close to the beach in Sydney with her husband, her four children and her cat, Mushka.
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