The Leaning Tower of Pisa
More to the City than an Architectural Gaffe
Passing through the walls of the city of Pisa, Italy one can see many tourists taking pictures of their friends in the typical illusory pose of their traveling companion “holding” up the Leaning Tower. Most notable for its flawed bell tower, tourists neglect to take in other attractions this small town has to offer. The famous bell tower belongs to the church of the town, the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. The Romanesque church’s interior was heavily influenced by Arab and Islamic art, as well as some Jewish and Christian influences. Though many pay close attention to the tilt of the tower, few realize that both the church and the baptistery as well have a slope but because of their design, it is not as pronounced.
A local tour guide explained that there is no signature to the Leaning Tower because of its defect; since the structure was faulty no one wanted to take credit for it. Yet the reasons for the gradient are known. The first is the weight; the tower is just too heavy. Fifteen tons of marble were used to construct the configuration. Size is another factor; building a monument that shape and so towering, the top could not hold the weight of the marble stones. Add those two reasons to the third, the soft soil beneath the structure, and this is a recipe for an architectural disaster that so many tourists flock to annually.
As mentioned before, the other two structures, the baptistery and the church, are slanted as well. Due to the shape of these buildings, neither being as high as the tower and the baptistery being the smallest of the three, the slant is not well noticed. Such a great skew on the tower closed the structure to the public for a period of time as it was deemed dangerous.
After being built, the tower proceeded to tilt a bit more every year and in 1990, it was realized that the tower was in jeopardy of toppling and therefore had to be restabilized. Part of the process included removing underground soil from one side in attempt to get the tower to tilt back upright. This was not enough and lead block were added to one side of the structure to help pull it in the right direction. By the year 2000 this project was complete and the monument was reopened. Today the tower is 48 cm less tilted, so to speak, than it was before it was closed in 1990. When observing photographs, one can see that the Leaning Tower of Pisa is conspicuously ‘upright,’ this it, it does not lean so much anymore.
Fascinating as this all is, Pisa has more to offer than just this magnificent tower. At the baptistery, the building where non-Catholics had to enter to be baptized before they entered the church, a vocal demonstration is given every seven minutes to show the acoustics of the inside. One can ascend to the balcony of this structure, about seventy steps up, and see and hear the tenor from above as he belts a few measures and it echoes twelve times over. The baptismal itself, in which one was fully submerged, is ornately decorated with wood inlay; each panel of the octagonal vessel is a different design.
Taking a stroll through the church one can see the influence of Islamic, Christian and Jewish culture. The two tiered interior is much like the old synagogues of the Jewish faith, where women would sit in the top balcony with the men below. The archways of the bottom level are much like those found in Islamic mosques, while the pulpit where the priest gives his sermon is fashioned in the typical gothic style the cathedrals of Western Europe.
Pisa, Italy is most well known by tourists for its Leaning Tower. Though the bell tower of the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary is most celebrated with its tilt, the other buildings are slanted as well. And while many snap their cameras away at the angled architecture of the Leaning Tower, the beauty and mystique of the baptistery and the cathedral are worth a visit.
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