It is a marble masterpiece. One of the most famous buildings in the world. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is simply an impossibility. More like something you dream than something that can exist.
For hundreds of years the world has watched in amazement as the building defies gravity.
It is quite miraculous that it has not fallen over. It is what draws hundreds of thousands of tourists every year to visit Pisa. Each one anxious to give a helping hand.
For eight hundred years architects and engineers have been trying to fix the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
Walking into the Tower by the stairways leads you to its stunning bell chamber.
Nowadays it is locked for the public, because the government decided to protect the tourists from any kind of disaster.
The risk is huge because the Tower could become unstable from one moment to the next since it has been in this position for centuries.
There were so many plans for how to keep the Tower from falling down. And so the Tower would not move the wrong way, they wrapped two steel cables around the Tower’s third level.
If catastrophe struck during the soil extraction the cables could be tensioned to hold the Tower in place. And they found a method to reposition the Tower.
While the bureaucratic wheels turn slowly, life in Pisa goes on as it always has. The tourists who visit the Tower know little of its complex history. To straighten the Tower would be like taking the smile from the Mona Lisa. It is a great example of something that went wrong, and yet it is the most famous building in the world.
No one can imagine Pisa without its Tower. The Tower is simply unique with a unique hold on the imagination of Italy and the world. Its future remains as uncertain as ever.
