Piazza del Duomo, Pisa
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How it came to be
In 1064 the maritime republic of Pisa began its cathedral under the architect Buscheto, paid for partly with spoils from campaigns in Sicily. Pope Gelasius II consecrated it in 1118, and Rainaldo lengthened the nave and built the façade in the 12th century.
Work on the bell tower began in August 1173, but by 1178, at the second floor, it was already sinking into soft ground. War halted building for about a century; when it resumed in 1272, the upper floors were built taller on one side to offset the lean. The bell chamber was finished in 1372.
By 1990 the lean had reached 5.5 degrees and the tower was closed. Lead counterweights of 870 tonnes and soil removal brought it back to 3.97 degrees, and it reopened in 2001. The Camposanto cemetery on the square was hit by incendiary bombs in 1944.
Travellers who came here
- 1867-07
He stopped here around 25 July on the way back to the ship at Leghorn and climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower. He wrote that he saw, in the Baptistery, the lamp said to have suggested the pendulum to Galileo.
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