LEVEL 3 TOWER OF PISA

TOWER OF PISA

The Tower of Pisa Leaning Tower of Pisa or (Italian: Torre pendente di Pissa) is the steeple of the Cathedral of Pisa. It was built to stand vertically but began leaning as soon as construction began in August 1173.

 

 

The tower height is 55.7 to 55.8 meters from the base, its weight is estimated at 14,700 tons and the inclination of about 4 ° extending 3.9 m from the vertical. The tower has 8 levels: a base of arches with 15 columns, 6 levels with an external colonnade topped by a belfry.

 

 

The internal staircase has 294 spiral steps. The tower is located in Pisa, a town in the Italian region of Tuscany and is the capital of the homonymous province.

 

 

 

 

 

The construction of the Tower of Pisa was developed in three stages over a period of 177 years. The construction of the first floor of marble began August 8, 1173, in a period of military success and prosperity. The first floor is surrounded by pillars with classical capitals and arches.

 

 

After the third floor was built in 1178, the tower leaned to the north, due to a weak foundation (three meters) in an unstable subsoil. The design of this tower was imperfect from the start and construction stopped for a century because to wars between Pisans and the neighboring states. This period allowed the soil to settle, otherwise the tower would have collapsed.

 

 

 

Only in 1372 Tommaso di Andrea Pisano built the top floor (bell tower) and the bells were installed. He believes that his intervention harmoniously combines Gothic elements of the Romanesque bell tower. The bells are seven, each corresponding to a note of the musical scale, the largest one was installed in 1655. However, after concluded of the bell tower, the tower began to lean, this time heading south.

After a decade of reconstruction and stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to the public on December 15, 2001. Many methods were proposed to stabilize the tower, including adding 800 metric tons of lead ballast. The final solution to correct the inclination was to remove 38 cubic meters of land in the area below the base. The tower has been declared stable for at least another 200 years:

The consolidation efforts have allowed the inclination whatever it was in 1700, 3.99 meters.