Leaning Tower, Pisa Building, Miracles Square, Cathedral Bell, Historic Italian Architecture

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy

Piazza dei Miracoli, The Leaning Tower of Pisa Italy – Historic Building Information

The Leaning Tower of Pisa

With the arrival of Summer, begin the night openings at the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Starting on June 1st through the end of August, it will be possible to visit the Tower until 10:30 pm (2 and a half additional hours from the classic Summer closure hour). It’s a great opportunity to live the suggestion of this historical complex by night, and to admire, from the top at 55 meter height, an incredible landscape of the sunset at Tyhrrenian Sea, and enjoying the fresh breeze coming from it.

The Miracles Square of Pisa (Piazza dei Miracoli, named by Italian writer Grabriele d’Annunzio) is one of the most beautiful and most visited squares of Italy, famous and unforgettable due to the silhouette of the Leaning Tower, that is in fact the Bell Tower of the Cathedral. According to several researches and internet communities, it’s one of the most photographed monuments in the world. The tower is “100 Pisan arms” high, thus 58.36 meters from the foundations; it’s built on 7 bell-shaped levels, each one 5.83 meters high. It weights about 14.453 tons, and there are 296 steps to the top. The fist stones were posed on August 9th 1173 under Bonanno Pisano’s project, but the real authorship is still matter of discussion.

The softness of the ground, formed by moist clay, is the reason of the slope. From the construction of the first 3 levels, the tower started immediately to lean; trying to straighten it up, 3 more levels were built, in an opposite sense to balance the slope. In the last decades of the 20th Century, the leaning had increased so much that was a concrete danger of collapse. The consolidation works, from 1990 to 2001, reduced the leaning to 3.99 meters (5 degrees, with a displacement of almost 50 centimeters of the top). It’s believed to remained this way for at least 300 years.

Being able to visit the Pisa tower by night, without the oppressing heat of the Tuscan Summer, will allow you to enjoy more of the beauties of the ancient Maritime Republic, surrounded by a unique context in the world, perhaps after dining in one of the typical fish “trattorie” of the city to end a marvelous journey in Pisa. It is also easy to reach Piazza dei Miracoli by train or car from Florence in less than an hour, and so conclude an unforgettable day in the history and beauty of the Medieval Tuscany.

Location: Pisa, Italy, southern Europe