The Tower of Pisa turns 850 years old. Yearlong celebration kicks off

The Tower of Pisa turns 850 years old: it was August 9, 1173 when the first stone of the Pisa Cathedral Bell Tower, or the Tower, was laid. And to celebrate this important anniversary, theOpera della Primaziale Pisana, the nonprofit body established to oversee the work of building the monuments in the cathedral square, will kick off a program of celebrations on Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023, that will last an entire year.

Having become a symbol of the city, the Tower is world famous for its slope. The current inclination is about 5.115°, and thanks to constant monitoring, the health of the monument is kept under control at all times. The Tower enjoys an excellent state of health despite its advanced age. In 1999, an under-excavation was carried out through which the Tower was “straightened” by 460 millimeters, stabilizing the movement of the Bell Tower: through a series of borings a small amount of soil was removed below the north side of the foundation. This under-excavation brought the Campanile to a condition of absolute safety with respect to the unstable equilibrium phenomenon from which it was suffering. In fact, over the past twenty-three years, the Campanile has continued to “straighten” with a very slow and progressively slower motion. The slope of the Tower is due to the subsidence of the ground consisting of soft clay; during the construction of the monument, precisely because of the subsidence of the ground, the first phase of work had to be interrupted in the middle of the third floor; work then resumed in 1275 under the leadership of Giovanni di Simone and Giovanni Pisano, adding three more floors to the previous construction. It was then completed in the middle of the following century with the addition of the belfry.

Last year also saw the official formation of the committee, chaired by Pierfrancesco Pacini, president of the Opera della Primaziale Pisana, and composed of Patrizia Paoletti Tangheroni, Olivia Castaldi, Sara Pirola, Marcello Lazzeri, Stefano Mecenate, Laura Meoli, Gianluca De Felice, Pino Toscano and Antonio Schena, to organize and manage the 850th anniversary celebrations.

The Tower was never intended for the defense of the city: in addition to being a fundamental part of the religious complex of the Piazza del Duomo, the monument performed an active function in the scanning of time, human and divine, by means of its seven bells, as many as there are musical notes, the largest of which, cast in 1655, weighs a good three and a half tons.

The Tower is just over 58 meters high and has an outer diameter of 15 meters, while its weight reaches more than 14 tons. It is also possible to climb to the top of the Tower by climbing the 273 steps inside.

The Tower of Pisa turns 850 years old. Yearlong celebration kicks off

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