The Fraught History of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
- mooreacorrigan
- Aug 12
- 2 min read
Curiosity #7
Reposted from Substack August 12, 2025
The Leaning Tower of Pisa seemed to be in every classroom I was in from kindergarten through middle school. Perhaps because it looks so unique but it is also easy to draw on a poster?
Despite being a constant fixture in my childhood, no one ever explained to me why it was leaning, just that it was. I’d forgotten about this curiosity until this week, when I saw a photo of it in passing. This may seem like an obvious curiosity, but I did not bother to look it up before and hey, the year of curiosity is the right time to indulge these nagging question.
Construction on the bell tower began in 11731, and three levels were built before builders noticed that the structure was sinking into the alluvial soil2, which was too soft to hold up the tower’s marble structure. Before this issue could be addressed, a war broke out and construction did not start again until 1272. The engineer Giovanni di Simone compensated for the tilt by building one side of the tower floors longer than the other, creating its famous banana shape3. Unfortunately, another war broke out and the final bell tower was not finished until 13724.
Over time, the angle of the title worsened (sped on by the heavy bells in the bell tower), reaching a full 5.5 degrees in 19905. The tower was closed until 2001 for a massive attempt to reinforce the foundations and straighten the building. This endeavor was successful, and experts estimate that the tower will stand for at least another 200 years6.
The timeline of the repairs explains why the tower was such a big part of my childhood imagery, as the reopening of the tower coincides with when I started kindergarten.
2 An unstable soil composed of sand, clay, and shells. https://leaningtowerpisa.com/facts/why-is-pisa-tower-leaning
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