Unconcerned by the leaning, the tower was added a 7th floor in the second part of the 14th century, as well as a bell tower, and then the tower was left on its own until the 19th century. This only caused the tower to lean over even more… He tried to compensate for the original lean by making one side of the upper floors taller than the other. Mistake after mistake!Īfter 100 years, engineer Giovanni di Simone stepped forward and started to add more floors to the tower. The government decided to focus on its war with Genoa and hope that the soil would settle in the meantime. As a result the weight of the tower began to diffuse downward until it had found the weakest point.ĭue to this problem, construction works stopped for 100 years. This mix impacted the soil and furthermore the clay was not strong enough to hold the tower upright. The thing is the foundation of the tower, which is only 3-meter deep, was built on a dense clay mixture. Italians were shocked by the event, as the tower began to lean ever so slightly. Originally designed to be a bell tower, it stood upright for over 5 years, but when the third floorwas completed in 1178 it began to lean. The construction of the Tower began in 1173.

Why is the tower leaning then? What the architect didn’t account for was the base of the tower, which was built on a dense section of clay… The Early Years of the Leaning Tower of Pisa With its many columns and archs, this tower boasts an advanced knowledge of weight and load characteristics, showing the Italian architectures’ expertise. In 1987 the whole square became one of the many Italian UNESCO World Heritage sites! The leaning tower is the third oldest building built in the square, after the wonderful Cathedral and its Baptistry. This square is also known as Piazza dei Miracoli, “Miracles’ Square”, a name given by Italian writer Gabriele D’Annunzio.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is located on the city’s main square, Piazza del Duomo. Just one little miscalculation made in the 11th century left us with an amazing 14,500 ton leaning tower! Known among Italians as Torre Pendente di Pisa, this piece of architecture is significally different from most medieval architecture. The Leaning tower of Pisa was actually the result of a human mistake.

Leaning tower of pizza