Complex history of the Leaning Tower construction (1173-1185, 1273-1284, 1350)
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is an architectural monument, which can be safely called the main architectural symbol of Italy. Thousands of tourists “besiege” the medieval bell tower from early morning until late at night because a selfie-photo against the background of the Leaning Tower is an obligatory photo-trophy for everyone who has visited Italy The Tower itself, meanwhile, is part of the grand and magnificent architectural ensemble of the Cathedral Square, created in the era of the medieval Republic of Pisa – the strongest European maritime power in the XI-XIII centuries. Pisa’s “Square of Miracles” is one of the best squares in Europe and one of the most beautiful places on the planet in general. Despite the widespread stereotype that there is “nothing to see in Pisa except the Tower”, the most important monument of the “Square of Miracles” is naturally the “Duomo” – the Cathedral of Pisa – the first great cathedral built in Italy in the eleventh – twelfth centuries after the decline of the European Dark Ages. Of equal importance is the Baptistery of Pisa, the largest baptistery in the world, a witness to the Crusades, built as a replica of the original Jerusalem temple of the Holy Sepulchre, the “Anastasis” (now actually the interior part of the “great temple of the Holy Sepulchre”). The “New Jerusalem” – Baptistery was to complement the Cathedral, erected as a symbol of “Pisa – the New Rome“. The new Bell Tower was also intended to be another evidence of the Pisa grandeur, but at the same time, at the whim of history, it became a symbol of the decline of the Maritime Republic. Its construction began in 1173, at the time of the greatest splendour and power of the medieval Pisa. The citizens of the Maritime Republic, of course, needed an unprecedented bell tower, and they achieved their goal. There is no irony in this statement – the Leaning Tower of Pisa is regarded as one of the main and paradigmatic monuments in the history of world architecture. And not because “the tower is leaning”, but first of all – due to its aesthetic merits: indeed, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a real architectural symphony, set in snow-white Carrara marble.
The first architect who invented it, of course, is a real genius, but precisely as an architect. As an engineer, he rather “blundered”, because only 12 years after the start of construction, the foundations of a building due to very weak soils under it gave an uneven settlement. The future tower leaned heavily to the south and its construction was halted for almost a century. It resumed only at the end of the 13th century, when it was proposed to build a bell tower, bending it against the fall “like a banana” to the north, in order to achieve a balance point in this way. This project was almost realised – during eleven years from 1273 to 1284 the Tower grew from the third to the seventh (penultimate) floor. Construction continued up to the infamous Battle of Meloria, a major disaster in the history of Pisa, when on August 6, 1284, the previously invincible fleet of Pisa was utterly defeated by the Genoese fleet. Pisa would never recover from that defeat – Genoa would become the hegemon on the Mediterranean, and Pisa’s importance would quickly fade away. Under such historical circumstances, the construction of the bell tower of the Pisa cathedral was never completed, and so it was never balanced. As a result, the tower had been “falling” more and more to the south for centuries, until it was finally “fixed” at the end of the 20th century.
Mystery of the first architect
For the eight and a half centuries the name of the first builder of the Tower has been shrouded in mystery. At the same time, we know perfectly well who built not only the neighboring Cathedral and Baptistery, but even the names of the craftsmen who made individual details of their decoration. Finally, it is safe to say that the historical mystery has been solved. A native of Florence, Giulia Ammannati, a researcher of Latin paleography at the most prestigious university in Italy, the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, was able to restore and read the inscription on a stone slab found in the ground near the Tower back in 1838. For the last two centuries because of the inscription “Bonannus civis Pisanus” (Bonnano, citizen of Pisa) it was mistakenly thought to be the tombstone of Bonanno Pisano, architect and sculptor of the last quarter of the twelfth century.
Until now, only three of these words have been read on the slab, but Ammannati has deciphered its full text. These are two hexameters in Latin: “I am sure that I have erected a magnificent monument above any other. I am a citizen of Pisa named Bonanno” (Mìrificùm qui cèrtus opùs condéns statui ùnum, Pìsanùs civìs Bonànnus nòmine dìcor). Thus, this is not a memorial plaque, but an autograph of the master. According to Ammannati, the marble slab is a matrix prepared for setting bronze letters. The slab was supposed to be installed at the entrance to the Tower in order to glorify its architect, but due to the subsidence of the building to the south, which began almost immediately after the start of construction, the slab was lost in a layer of construction debris, where it lay until the 19th century excavations.