Pisa - straight tower on a leaning world
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Pisa - straight tower on a leaning world
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Straight tower on a leaning world, Pisa, Italy.
Who has not heard of this tower in too many occasions?
We end up taking it for granted. Yeah, an old tower with bad foundation that is dangerously tilting... it is only when you get there and actually see it that you realize how amazingly graceful and luminous it is.
The whole place, the Leaning Tower, the Duomo or cathedral and the baptistery, is an incredible composition of breath-taking delicacy which has been reduced around the world to a simple tilted tower. The awe-striking beauty of the complex is just beyond words.
The tower's tilt began during construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side. The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was completed, and gradually increased until the structure was stabilized in modern times
.
The height of the tower is 183.27 feet from the ground on the low side and 185.93 feet on the high side. Prior to restoration between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99. This means that the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 12 ft 10 in from the center.
Construction of the tower took 199 years. Work began in 1173. The tower began to sink after construction had progressed to the second floor in 1178. Construction was halted for almost a century, because the Republic of Pisa was almost continually at war with Genoa, Lucca, and Florence. This allowed time for the underlying soil to settle. Otherwise, the tower would almost certainly have toppled.
Amazing story of a failure becoming an icon...
There is a vintage version of this picture.
You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:
http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/
Weston Westmoreland.
Uploaded
October 16th, 2015
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