Nicola is perhaps the most famous after the official Leaning Tower of Pisa. You can see two others in Pisa’s Borgo Stretto.
The octagonal bell tower of the San Nicola Church leans as well! | Photo via VisitTuscanyĭue to the soft subsoil of the entire area, there are actually several leaning towers of Pisa.
Unsure of what to do next, the builders halted construction for almost a century. But by the time they reached the fourth story (out of a planned 8) they had to make the arches on the south side a full two inches taller than those on the north and the tower still continued to lean. As construction continued the builders tried to offset their mistake by adding taller columns and arches on the south side of the tower. Unfortunately, by then it was too late to turn back. But it wasn’t until the second story was being built that the tower began to sink on one side. By giving the tower a shallow and relatively heavy foundation, they inadvertently doomed it from the outset. Given that the name “Pisa” comes from the Greek word for “marshy land” you would think that the cathedral’s architects would have taken the subsoil into account while building a very tall bell tower. In fact, the bell tower was meant to be the tallest of its age and probably would have been if circumstances hadn’t thrown a wrench into the works. After sacking Palermo in 1063 the city government needed a place to display all of the treasures that adventurers had brought back from Sicily so they decided to construct the “Field of Miracles” which would eventually be home to a Cathedral, Baptistery, cemetery, and one very tall bell tower. Like any prosperous medieval Italian city, Pisa began to invest its new wealth in the construction grand buildings. The 12th century was a good one for Pisa the city’s military, commercial, and political importance grew as their once small seaport became a regional powerhouse. The tower was built to show off (with stolen money)
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