THE LEANING TOWER

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 116, 14 February 1928, Page 3

THE LEANING TOWER

It lias been reported that the Leaning . lower of Pisa was beginning to lean more than ever. Mindful of the fate of the Campanile of Venice 25 rears ago, Italy appointed two commissions to examine the danger at Pisa. The report is that at tile moment, and in the immediate future, 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 13fft. These figures arc sufficient proof of the need for watchful care (say's the Lonuoii “Daily ’Tele, graph”). The Leaning Tower is not merely one of tho 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 the arches and columns of the Tower at Pisa are all marble. It dates from 1174, it belongs to the golden age of the city, when she was indeed “the proud mart ot Pisae, queen of the Western wave,” when her fleets fought the battle of Christendom against the sea power of the infidel. Whether Bonnano and William of Innsbruck, who were the aichitects, meant their tower to lean has been disputed, "but the accepted theory now is that after building was began 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 180tt. high, go down only 10ft., and are no larger in circumference than the building above ground. When the tower was up to the third storev the architects seem to have decided that it must be given an inclination in the opposite direction to counteract the subsidence. Nearly two hundred years went by before the last arcade and the last column were wrought and tho citizens could climb to the eighth storey where the seven bells hang, and look out over that wonderful prospect of sea and river and mountain. But by that time the golden years of Pisa were over. In the strife of Emperor and Pope the city was wounded deep. Her trade rivals, Genoa anl Florence, took ' the chance to strike at her. Malice domestic added its woes to foreign levy. And still, through generation after generation of disaster, the Indomitable i Pisans laboured on to make their city a treasury of art.