The Leaning Tower of Pisa has stopped leaning and straightened a bit

Pisa - The famous tower in the Italian city of Pisa has stopped leaning and has even straightened somewhat thanks to engineering work aimed at saving this medieval monument and one of Italy's main tourist attractions. This was reported by the AFP agency.

"The tower in Pisa is stable and its tilt has slightly decreased," announced the team of experts overseeing the restoration work and monitoring the late Romanesque bell tower (campanile) for 17 years.

Professor of engineering at the University of Pisa Nunziante Squeglia, cited by Italian media, stated that the tower's 54.4-meter vertical axis deviation has decreased by four centimeters. The tilt is now half a degree less than at the turn of the millennium. "It's as if we have removed two centuries from its age," remarked another expert on the team, Professor Salvatore Settis.

Construction of the marble bell tower began in 1173. Due to the clayey substrate, it leaned significantly even before the completion of the third floor, and it took almost a century before construction continued.

At that time, it also acquired another "blemish": the builders of the time, in an effort to eliminate the influence of the unstable foundations, decided to underpin the top floor. This was supposed to "straighten" the tower, but it was unsuccessful - the bell tower became not only tilted but also curved. It wasn't until the 14th century that workers could place the heaviest of all seven bells, which weighed three and a half tons, at the top. The tower was finally completed around 1350 (with a tilt of 2.1 meters).

However, the bell tower continued to lean, and by the early 1990s, it deviated from the vertical axis by more than five degrees, or 4.5 meters. At that time, experts advocated its closure.

The subsequent rescue work from 1993 to 2001, during which the foundation was reinforced along with the tower, led to a reduction in the tilt of the bell tower by 44 centimeters. The cost of the work was estimated by the AFP agency at 28 million euros (639.4 million CZK).

The jewel of Italian architecture stands in Piazza dei Miracoli in Pisa, where all buildings lean, but none as much as the famous monument. The tower serves as the bell tower for the adjacent Basilica of Santa Maria.