Bologna’s leaning 48-meter tall Garisenda Tower was closed during the weekend, after worrying movement was monitored by scientists of the University of Bologna.
The Garisenda tower is part of the city’s twin towers, with the 97.2-meter tall Asinelli Tower standing right next to it.
Construction of the twin towers took place between 1109 and 1119, at a time that Bologna resembled a mini-Manhattan with roughly 200 such towers standing tall in the city.
However, most of these structures were leveled during a period of reconstruction in the 1920s.
As for the Garisenda itself, the tower has historically been known to face geotechnical problems.
More specifically, the Italian poet Dante wrote about the tower’s leaning in his work “Inferno”, while it had to be lowered by approximately 10 meters during the 14th century amid concerns of collapse, due to yielding ground.
The Garisenda is currently leaning four degrees, which is slightly less than the Tower of Pisa’s five-degree tilt.
A team of scientists from the University of Bologna has been monitoring the structure for the past five years, and they recently received concerning data regarding the tower’s settlement, which has been attributed to its weak foundation.
In 2019, the Garisenda was fitted with steel bands, while grout was also injected into its foundations in 2022, trying to stabilize it.
Recently, the team of scientists received some worrying data concerning the structure’s movement, leading to its closure during the weekend.
Very sensitive acoustic sensors and a pendulum were placed on site to track the tower’s movement, while it was clarified that tapping off the area was not due to matters of public safety, but rather a means of minimizing noise pollution and obtaining better measurements.
However, it is worth noting that it is unclear if bus traffic will be allowed again near the tower.
Finally, the area is going to reopen to the public on Friday, after the structure’s oscillations have been recorded, and a €5 million budget from the government’s EU funded National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) was announced to be allocated to the tower’s rehabilitation.
Sources: edition.cnn.com, www.euronews.com, www.dailymail.co.uk
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