THE LEANING TOWER.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 229, 22 March 1928, Page 2

THE LEANING TOWER.

LIST INCREASING. It has been reported that the Leaning Tower of Pisa was beginning to lean more than ever. Mindful of the Campanile of Venice 25 years ago, Italy set up two commissions to examine the danger at Pisa. The report is that at the moment, and in the immediate future, no disaster is to be fealred, but tn-. .Ist of the tower is slowly increasing, and to ensure its stability the base must be strengthened and the streams which flaw underground diverted. At the present time the tower is some 14i feet out of the perpendicular. In 1880 the list was less than feet. These figures are sufficient proof of the need for watchful care (says we London Daily Telegraph). The Leaning Tower 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 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 of Pisae, queen of the western wave,” when her fleets fought the battle of Christendom against the sea power of the infidel. Whether Bannano and William of Innsbruck, who were the architects, meant their tower to lean has been disputed, but the accepted theory now is that after the 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 180 feet high, go down only 10 feet, 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 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 the 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 between emperor and pope the city was wounded deep. Her trade rivals, Genoa and Florence, took the chance to strike at her. Malice added its woes to foreign levy. And still through generation after generation of disaster the indomitable Pisans laboured to make their city a treasury of art.