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Then in 1275 A.D., the next architects to take over the project added three additional floors that bent in the opposite direction of the tower’s northward lean, reports the Getty. Almost 100 years passed before anyone worked on the tower again, writes, a delay that likely allowed the foundation to settle enough to prevent it from falling over during construction. To put its height in perspective, that’s one-third the height of the Washington monument, which, at 555 feet high, remains in 2017 the world’s tallest stone structure.Īt that point, fortunately for the landmark, war broke out between the Italian city-state of Pisa, where the tower was being built, and Genoa. It was designed to be the third part of a cathedral complex, a white marble tower standing 185 feet high.

“A shallow foundation and the soft ground of Pisa-composed of sand, clay and deposits from the Tuscan rivers Arno and Serchio-were too unstable to support the building even in the early stages of its construction.” “While some architectural follies are the product of unforeseeable bouts of bad luck, the Leaning Tower of Pisa’s signature tilt could have been avoided with better planning,” writes Michael Arbeiter for Mental Floss. The tower was built over a period of 200 years, between 11 A.D. The fact that the Leaning Tower of Pisa has even made it this far is a fortunate historical accident. “Few monuments have been studied as much by engineers as the Leaning Tower of Pisa,” write scholars Ronald I. The 1990 closure was the first time in the tower's long life that it was was closed for repair. Today, the tower is back where it belongs-not straight, because what kind of person goes to visit the Vertical Tower of Pisa?-but leaning about 18 inches less than before. This week in 1990, the Leaning Tower of Pisa was closed for repairs.

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