Visiting the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa at the Square of Miracles - Italy (Photos + Videos)

Pisa is a little town close to the sea located at the Toscany, Italy. It counts about ninty thousand inhabitants. Half of them are students as Pisa hosts two leading univerities in the country.

Back in the middle ages it was one of the four most important sailor towns in Italy together with Genua, Amalfi and Venice. It also was in competition with Florence, Siena and Lucca.

So as you can see I couldn´t miss this spot on my trip through Italy ;) - As I told you already one week ago on BeerSaturday, I stopped by at the Piazza dei Miracoli (Square of miracles) to see this famous sight.

Apart from the leaning tower it actually counts a few more beautiful buildings made out of marble: the Pisa Cathedral, the Pisa Baptistry, the Campanile, and the Camposanto Monumentale (Monumental Cemetery).

It also offers two museums: The Sinopias Museum and the Cathedral Museum. That is why the whole square was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987.

It is a really crowded and touristy place to be honest. There are just two entrances to the main square and at both of them you will find a lot of people selling art, souvenirs or handcraft. It still has a good atmosphere though.

After all Pisa is still an antique italian city, so if you walk a little bit further, you will find those little alleys and good restaurants too. When I arrived I first had some pasta and went to the square afterwards.

I didn´t climb the top of the tower, because of time reasons, but obviousely I got some information for you ;)

Almost everybody told me that the leaning tower of Pisa (ital. torre pendente di Pisa) is the most famous leaning building on earth and the towns landmark.

It was planned as bell tower for the cathedral. They people of Pisa started constructing it in 1161. After they finished the third floor it started to lean southwards, so they took a break of a 100 years before they kept on building it.

For the next four floors they used a smaller angle trying to balance it out. After that they had another short break until the last part was finished in 1372 with 7 bells in it. Originally it was planned to built it up to 100 meters, but as it started to lean, they finished it with 54 meters.

Imagine that!! It took more than 200 years to finish that tower!! - That is a miracle already :D

The reason for it´s skew position is the ground. It turns out, that it was built on a ground made out of mud and sand. Scientists found out, that It is located on a spot, that used to be the edge of an Island right next to an harbour.

On the top of the tower you can find a pendulum, which shows that the tower is leaning about 4 grad to the right. It almost touches the walls, as the lowest part of the tower is really askew.

The first rock on the southside from the top is about four meters away (horizontal speaking) from the most sothern rock on the bottom. The tower counts seven bells which are not allowed to pull in order to keep the building stable :D

In my school our teachers even used this example for math exams:

Image Credit

In 1990 it got so dangerouse, that the tower had to be closed for tourists, because there was a high risk for it to fall.

It took another thirteen years to renovate it and and straighten it, putting weight at the opposite sight of the tower to make it sink a bit over there too. Apart from that they started digging wholes under it to speed that process up.

Now tourists are able to visit the top in groups of 40 persons for 15 minutes tops.

For me the most funny thing at this spot are the people though. Almost everybody wants a picture with the tower, so you can see a lot of people posing just in front of it.

If you are the first in line and look back it seems like they are crazy living statues :D

Here a short video to get a feeling for the atmosphere :D

Of course I took a few pictures myself using the most creative poses I´ve seen before.

I hope you liked that post and I am grateful for every Upvote, Resteem or Follow as you are supporting my world trip with it!

Cheers, Liz