THE LEANING TOWER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20316, 26 January 1928, Page 4

THE LEANING TOWER.

It has been reported that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was beginning to lean mo*e than ever. Mindful of the fate of the Campanile of Venice 25 years Italy appointed two commissions to examine the danger at Pisa. The report is that at the moment, and in the immediate tut re, no disaster is to be feared, but the list of the tower is slowly increasing, and to ensure its stability the base must be strengthened and the streams which flow underground diverted. At the present time the tower is some 14£ft out of the perpendicular. In 1800 the list was less than lof-ft. These figures are sufficient proof “of the need for watchful care (says the London Daily Telegraph). The Leaning lower is not merely one of the wonders of the world for its equilibrium between stability and instability; it is the noblest building of its kind. After the crash the Campanile of St. Mark was rebuilt, to the general admiration. But that was a shaft of brick, and th© arches and columns of the Tower at Pisa are all marb.e It dates from 1174, it belongs to the golden age of the city, when she was indeed “ the proud mart of Pisae, queen of the Western wave.” when her fleets fought the battle of Christendom against the sea power of the infidel. Whether Bonnr.no and William of Innsbruck, who were the architects, meant their tower to lean has been disputed, but the accepted theoiy now is that after building was begun the foundations on the south, side sank, owing, no doubt, to that underground water against which precautions are now, seven centuries later, to be taken. Foundations were not the strong point of mediaeval architects. The foundations of the Leaning Tower, which is 130 ft high, go down only 10ft, and are no larger in circumference than the building above ground. When the tower was % up to the third storey the architects seem to have decided that it fc e given inclination in the oppor.-tc direction counteract the subsidence. Nearly years went by before the last arcade and the last column were wrought and the citizens could climb to the eighth «torev where the seven bells I'.ang, and look out over that wonderful prospect of sea ,vd river and mountain. But bv that time ! golden years of Pisa were" over. In t o strife of Europe and Pope the city was wounded deep. Her trade Avals, Genoa, and ’Florence, took the chance to strike afc her. Malice domestic added its woes to foreign levy. And, still, through generation after of disaster, the indomitable - laboured on to make their city ..casury of ait.