Visits last 35 minutes and involve a steep climb up 251 occasionally slippery steps. To avoid disappointment, book in advance online or go straight to a ticket office when you arrive in Pisa to book a slot for later in the day. Experts believe that this will guarantee the tower's future for the next three centuries.Īccess to the Leaning Tower is limited to 45 people at a time – children under eight are not allowed in/up. After some 70 tonnes of earth had been extracted from the northern side, the tower sank to its 18th-century level and, in the process, rectified the lean by 43.8cm. This held the tower in place as engineers began gingerly removing soil from below the northern foundations. To counter this, steel braces were slung around the 3rd storey and joined to steel cables attached to neighbouring buildings. By 1993 it stood 4.47m out of plumb, more than 5 degrees from the vertical. Over the next 600 years, the tower continued to tilt at an estimated 1mm per year. But once again work had to be suspended – this time due to war – and construction wasn't completed until the second half of the 14th century. They kept going, though, compensating for the lean by gradually building straight up from the lower storeys. Work resumed in 1272, with artisans and masons attempting to bolster the foundations but failing miserably. Only three of the tower's seven tiers had been built when he was forced to abandon construction after it started leaning.
Over time, the tilt, caused by a layer of weak subsoil, steadily worsened until it was finally halted by a major stabilisation project in the 1990s.īuilding began in 1173 under the supervision of architect Bonanno Pisano, but his plans came a cropper almost immediately. The 58m-high tower, officially the Duomo's campanile (bell tower), took almost 200 years to build, but was already listing when it was unveiled in 1372. One of Italy's signature sights, the Torre Pendente truly lives up to its name, leaning a startling 3.9 degrees off the vertical.
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