Europe

Leaning tower of Bologna cordoned off amid fears 900-year-old structure could collapse

Garisenda tower is older than the more famous leaning tower of Pisa, and officials have announced €4.3m remedial works to begin early in the new year

The Garisenda Tower, alongside its twin, the Asinelli Tower, in the centre of Bologna. Photograph: Chris Warde-Jones/The New York Times
The Garisenda Tower, alongside its twin, the Asinelli Tower, in the centre of Bologna. Photograph: Chris Warde-Jones/The New York Times
Sat Dec 02 2023 - 16:19

Officials have secured the area around a 12th-century tower in the Italian city of Bologna, fearing its leaning could lead to a collapse.

The city announced €4.3 million in works to shore up the Garisenda tower, one of the so-called Two Towers that look out over central Bologna, providing inspiration over the centuries to painters and poets and a lookout spot during conflicts.

Work will proceed in January and February.

The Garisenda medieval tower in Bologna has a more pronounced lean than the Pisa tower, at 4 degrees. Photograph: Michele Nucci/Lapresse/AP
The Garisenda medieval tower in Bologna has a more pronounced lean than the Pisa tower, at 4 degrees. Photograph: Michele Nucci/Lapresse/AP

Italy’s civil protection agency has maintained a yellow alert on the site, denoting caution but not imminent danger.

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The Garisenda, the shorter of two towers built between 1109 and 1119, stands at 157ft, next to the Asinelli tower at 320ft.

The tower is older than Pisa’s more famous leaning tower, which was completed in 1372. Remedial works to that tower, which is a Unesco world heritage site, corrected its lean from 5.5 degrees to 3.9 degrees in the 1990s. Garisenda’s current slant is now greater, at 4 degrees.

[ Leaning Tower of Pisa leaning less than before, experts say ]

Mayor Matteo Lepore noted in a debate earlier this month that the Garisenda tower has leaned since it was built “and has been a concern ever since”.

It sustained additional damage in the medieval era when ironwork and bakery ovens were built inside.

“We inherited a situation that over the centuries has caused this illness,” he said.

The Garisenda and Asinelli towers, known as the Two Towers, in Bologna, Italy. Photograph: Massimo Paolone/Lapresse/AP
The Garisenda and Asinelli towers, known as the Two Towers, in Bologna, Italy. Photograph: Massimo Paolone/Lapresse/AP

The mayor has asked the government to petition to make the towers Unesco world heritage sites.

Work to reinforce both towers has been continuing since the 1990s.

Preliminary work on the Garisenda tower will include creating a containment area to prevent any damage to nearby structures or harm to passersby from a “possible collapse”, the city said in a statement.

Video cameras will maintain surveillance of the site.

– AP