The Leaning Tower is probably the best known of the ” four fabrics.” Famous in the most distant lands, its image in alabaster is found in every town, its photographs are legion. Not because of any inherent beauty or architectural merit, but simply because it leans out of the perpendicular.
To many eyes a tower that leans is an unpleasant object. Composing badly with the surrounding buildings, it introduces discord into the harmony of straight lines. But the oddity of its inclination has fascinated the majority of mankind.
Even Dante did not escape from this curious passion. He uses the Garisenda tower in Bologna as an image, merely because it leans :
“ … As appears
The tower of Carisenda, from beneath
Where it doth lean, if chance a passing cloud
So sail across, that opposite it hangs.”
Inferno, XXXI – 136 to 139, Gary’s translation. ( 1 )
To the student of architecture this is an annoying attitude. He would fix his mind on the structure and ornamentation of the tower, but when he turns to his authorities it is only to find them so absorbed in trying to account for its crookedness, that they have but little space left for mere architecture or history.
Until recently, it has been supposed that the inclination was intended by the builders to show their skill, though it is impossible to believe that anyone should have so absurd and futile a purpose. Every writer explains elaborately how and why this was done.
( From the book “The Story of Pisa” by Janet Ross and Nelly Erichsen – Illustrade by Nelly Erichsen – London : J.M. Dent & Co, Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedfod Street Covent Garden, W.C. – 1909 )
( 1 )
“ Qual pare a riguardar la Carisenda
sotto ‘l chinato, quando un nuvol vada
sovr’ essa sì, ched ella incontro penda. ”
Dante Alighieri , Inferno XXXI , 136-139
territori del '900 