Leaning Tower of Pisa
More About Tower of Pisa : Leaning Tower of Pisa : Pisa : Pisa Tower History : Tower Basic : Pisa Tower Gallery
The Tower of Pisa was built to show
the rest of the world the wealth of the city of Pisa. The people of Pisa were
very good sailors and they conquered many lands, including Jerusalem, Carthago,
Ibiza, Mallorca, Africa, Belgium, Britania, Norway, Spain, Morocco, and other
places. But they had only one real enemy, the people from Florence. And to show
how well they were doing they started to build a really useless belltower to go
with the rest of the buildings near it - the Cathedral, Baptistery, and
Yes people the Tower of Pisa is nothing more than a bell tower, but because my last name is Pisa I find it a very interesting tower.
They started to build the tower in the year 1173 that means the foot of the tower. After a while the war with Florence started again and they stopped. In 1180 the restarted and in 1185 they had finished the 1st., 2nd., and the 3rd. floor. And again war with Florence, which of course meant that they put all their money in warfare. In this year the tower started to lean to one side, so while they were building, it was already the leaning tower of Pisa. They must have been thinking that a bell tower without bell wasn't a bell tower so the put some bells on the top of the 3rd. floor in 1198.
Piazza dei Miracoli from Northwest
from Europe Illustrated, about 1875
After a another war with guess
who...... Florence, they started again for a period of nine years, from 1275
till 1284. But they didn't have any reason to show off anymore since they had
lost a big sea battle in 1284 against the fleet of Genoa. This was because they
were betrayed by their own count. Count Ugolino della Gherardesca was locked up
with his whole family in the tower of Gualandi.
The people of Pisa threw the key in the Arno River and the count and his family died of starvation. In 1319 they finished all the floors. And finally they put the bell tower on top of it in 1350. In 1392 Pisa was sold to Florence, a big humiliation for the people of Pisa.
The started a rebellion but in 1406 they had to surrender because they were under siege and everybody was dying of starvation. In 1499 they started another war against Florence who were using the people of Pisa as slaves. And again the brave but unfortuned army of Pisa lost and that is the and of the history of Pisa.
They never managed to gain the wealth as in the early years, and now it is a small city somewhere in Italy and they are still showing off with their tower...........The leaning structure is actually the campanile (Italian for “belfry” or “belltower”) of the cathedral of Pisa.
More About Tower of Pisa : Pisa Tower : Pisa : Pisa Tower History : Tower Basic : Pisa Tower Gallery