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The Leaning Tower of Pisa

(Italian: Torre pendente di Pisa) The campanile of Pisa was begun in 1174 by Bonanno. At first the tower must simply have sunk down into the ground, but later it began to lean, perhaps as a result of atternpts to remove infìltratìons of water in the foun dations. Therefore in 1185 when the tower had arrived ha!fway up the third story the work was interrupted. Building began anew in 1275 under the direction of Giovanni di Simone and in only nine years another three and a haif floors were raised. Around the middie of the l4th century Tommaso Pisano was charged with ter minating the tower with the present belfry after having leveled off the floor corresponding to the seventh cornice. In the late 1950s the movement of the tower had once more slowed up and the difference between the base and the top was then five meters and seventeen centimeters. At present the overhang increases by about a millimeter per year. All these vicissitudes in the construction of the tower did not alter Bonanno’s original design, except for the height and the belfry. It is said that inspiration for the circular form of the tower came from Ravenna but it might also have come from the orient. The decoration is in any case related to the facade of the Cathedral, as is confirmed by the ground floor gailery of blind arches on engaged columns and the floors above with smali gaileries articulated by cornices.