Pisa, the pride of Italy
By- Dr. Veena Shekar
It is a renowned fact that Italy has given a lot to the world. The Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance architecture that span this artistically vibrant country makes it the most beautiful place to visit. That even a little town in Italy has something significant to offer to the world is indeed amazing. Pisa is a petit town of Italy and can be reached from Rome or Florence by train. Visitors usually take a quick tour of Pisa and rush back to Rome. Having come to Italy one just cannot afford to miss the leaning tower, the wonder of many wonders.
The little town of Pisa was a leading maritime trading centre of the middle ages. During the rule of the Medici, Pisa was embellished with streets, palaces and many monuments that are noted for their distinctive architectural and sculptural styles. The Cathedral Duomo Santa Maria and the Baptistery are the greatest expressions of Pisan artistic values.
Today, as we descend on the square of miracles and enter the magic gate of Santa Maria, suddenly, the beautiful cathedral, the lush green garden and the leaning tower are revealed to us, as if magically and poetically suspended in time and space. The leaning turret, the freestanding bell-tower, the campanile of the Cathedral Duomo, the pride of Pisa is surely no small wonder. It is the pride of Italy and it is a pride because of its lean. We all know that it wouldn't be a wonder if it were straight.
The illustrious leaning tower, slender in its round dance of loggias and arches is in fact the bell tower of the cathedral Duomo Santa Maria. It is an eight storey round tower, standing 55m tall and 16m in diametre at the base. Blind arcades (pilasters) encircle the ground floor. Six levels consisting of open galleries, supported by columns are surmounted by the bell chamber. Seven ancient bells hang on top, but do not appear to be in use. These are supposed to be tuned according to the seven notes of the musical scale. A total of 294 steps lead to the top of the tower from inside. However, it has been a decade since visitors are allowed to climb to the top for fear of collapse.
It is believed that in the year 1172, a widow by name Berta of Bernado, living in Santa Maria bequeathed sixty 'coins' in her testament towards the purchase of stones to build the tower. Later, there seem to have been many more donors towards the cause and eventually the work began. According to reliable tradition, the design of the tower is attributable to the Pisan architect Bonannus. The construction of the bell tower began in 1173. But as it reached a metre-and-a-half of the third floor, it began to lean fearfully and construction had to be stopped. So, as many presume, the leaning tower of Pisa was not meant to lean at all.
In this context, one has to mention the service of John Burland, a specialist in soil mechanics, Imperial College, London, who has worked for the preservation of the tower and succeeded considerably. Burland and his committee have spent several years studying the problem of the leaning tower.
It has been discovered that during the Roman period, the area around Pisa was a coastal lagoon. The tower sits on 30 ft of dense river silts, below which lies a 100-foot thick layer of marine clay. As Burland said in one of his interviews, "The problem of Pisa is that it is not built on rock, it is built on soft clay".
Coming back to the construction of the tower, work stopped when the lean was discovered, only to be resumed a few years later by Giovanni di Simone, who tried to rectify the tower’s inclination and raised it as far as the sixth storey. In the year 1250, as architects tried to adjust the lean, the tower assumed a slight banana shape by the time they reached the final storey. By 1272, the tower began to lean towards the south, and before they finished the bell tower architects once again tried to angle the top of the tower toward the north by adding four steps on the north side and six steps on the south side at the base.
For centuries, solutions have been offered to right the tower. In 1934, engineers working for Italian leader Benito Mussolini, who considered the flawed tower antithetical to his fascist ideals, attempted to correct it by injecting 200 tons of cement into the base. The 'fix', on the contrary, added a tenth of a degree to the tilt. In 1950, officials silenced the seven bells, (the largest of which weighs three and a half tons) for fear their vibrations would trigger a collapse. In 1990, it became crucial to close off access to the tower. At that time nearly 7,00,000 visitors were ascending the tower every year.
Some more interesting attempts taken up by the Italian government via the Burland committee to save the tower are as follows: In 1992, 600 tons of lead ingots were positioned around the base of the tower, on the opposite side to the potential collapse. At the end of 1993, given the failing result of this intervention, an electro-osmosis process was carried out on the tower’s foundation. Even this project was abandoned as being ineffective. In the years ‘94 and ‘95, ten anchors vertical to the ground that were supposed to act as counter balance were installed and the ground was 'frozen' with liquid nitrogen.
However, in mid ‘95, the tower began to move again but this time on the opposite side. Finally, in 1998, they decided to extract the soil from beneath the tower.
The published report of Robert Kunzig gives the description - "Two steel cables looped round the second loggia were attached to giant anchors partially concealed behind a neighbouring building. Forty-one drill pipes are now arrayed around the north quadrant of the tower. They enter the soil at different points along an arc about 40 feet from the tower and at an angle of 30 degrees; their tips lie about 12 feet under the north edge of the foundation. Inside each eight-inch-diametre pipe is an augur, a corkscrew like bit that traps soil between its blades and channels it to the surface. The tower then settles into the resulting yard-long cavities.
“Burland steers the tower and tries to keep it on an even northward course by deciding how much soil to remove through each pipe on any given day. As of late May, Heiniger's crew had removed more than 10 tons of soil. The tower had rotated 513 arc seconds north, and the crew was one third of the way to its goal. There had been no ominous lurches. Everyday now the workers wind the tower’s tilt clock back by months or even as much as a year. By next summer the committee hopes to restore the tower to five degrees, an angle it last saw early in the 19th century. That should buy the tower roughly two centuries of stability. Visitors are not likely to notice a half-degree decrease in tilt. The mayor of Pisa hopes to reopen the tower next year on June 17, the feast of San Ranieri, the city's patron saint."
That is the story of the leaning tower. Today, as one visits the tower, there is no sign of the struggle it has gone through. For all the efforts taken by the government the tower looks loveable and refreshing. There is no fear or apprehension. Just a happy ending to a skeptical beginning. The tower stands today in quiet wisdom, expressing the joys and sorrows of its earlier 800 years. Thousands of visitors flock everyday to catch a glimpse of the tower's tilt. As one gazes lovingly, a silent prayer, a wish, a hope, accidentally escapes from the heart for the eternity of the tower.
Deccan Herald 2nd December 2001Author
Dr. Veena shekar, is an art-historian and web designer. A voracious and avid reader of various subjects, Veena Shekar developed a keen interest and passion for art and art related subjects. This passion was enhanced further when she went to Paris in 1990, where she studied a few art courses. Her two years stay in the art-loving country immensely helped her pursue her career in the field of art-history.
Shekar holds a double post-graduate degree in English Literature and art-history and a post-graduate diploma in Journalism. She was awarded doctorate for her thesis " A study of historical paintings of karnataka between 1780 and 1830" in the year 2002. She is currently working on the manuscript for publication.
As a visiting lecturer at many art institutions of Bangalore, Veena Shekar’s contribution to art in general is note-worthy. She has been contributing to various magazines, newspapers and journals on human interest and art related topics and has designed a few art related websites worthy of mention.She is presently residing in Bangalore, India.