For more than six hundred years, the decoration of the Italian city of Pisa is the tower, which is part of the ensemble of the city cathedral. The fact that it has a significant slope brought this structure worldwide fame. For a long time, residents of the city and numerous tourists have been wondering whether the Leaning Tower of Pisa will fall.
Pisa decoration
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is impressive in size. Its height is more than 55 m, and the diameter of the base exceeds 15 m. Almost three hundred steps lead to the upper tiers. The outer walls are of different thickness; towards the top of the structure, it decreases. Experts believe that the total weight of the structure exceeds 14 thousand tons. Most importantly, the tower in Pisa has an unintentional tilt of more than three degrees.
In fact, the world famous building is not a tower in the literal sense of the word. This is a bell tower that is part of the ensemble of the Catholic cathedral.
The construction of the building began in the 12th century and took almost two hundred years. Architects are inclined to believe that the design of the bell tower was initially wrong. The fact is that the low three-meter foundation of the tower does not fit well with soft ground. Therefore, after the construction of three floors, the structure received a noticeable slope, although in the project it was strictly vertical. There is evidence that the tilt of the Leaning Tower of Pisa was also facilitated by the regular erosion of clay soil under the structure, which was already outlined during construction.
Will the famous tower fall?
Since the slope of the Leaning Tower of Pisa had been slowly and steadily increasing for hundreds of years, it was decided to fix it securely. Technical work continued from 1990 to 2001. The restoration work was carried out with the observance of precautions and using the most modern engineering methods. The tower was securely fastened to the cables, and cement was pumped under its base. This made it possible to significantly reduce the pressure of a heavy structure on a fragile, and therefore not very reliable soil.
As a result, the slope of the architectural structure was reduced by forty centimeters. The engineers carefully examined the improved design to ensure that it was securely fastened and that the slope did not increase.
Restorers argue that the tower will not be able to fall in the next two to three centuries. Calculations based on elementary physics show that this can only happen if the tower's center of gravity is outside the area of its foundation. But today there is no reason to assert that the center of gravity of a massive structure can shift.
The timely intervention of the restorers made it possible to stabilize the structure. And now the renovated bell tower of Pisa continues to delight tourists, many of whom are happy to take pictures against the backdrop of an amazing and one-of-a-kind architectural structure.
