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Most people know Pisa's famous Leaning Tower. Fewer know that it's just one component in a lovely
ensemble of medieval buildings; fewer still know that the rest of the city -- sadly --
is a largely modern place, the result of heavy bombing during Second World War.
Campo del Miracoli is a large grassy piazza that contains
the Leaning Tower (Torre Pendente), the Cathedral (Duomo),
the above Baptistry (Battistero), and the cemetary (Camposanto).
The Leaning Tower survived the bombs - a miraculous outcome, especially as
other monuments within a few feet were destroyed. The tower began in 1173 AD as
the cathedral's Campanile or bell tower, and started to lean almost
immediately, the result of the weak, sandy, subsoil underpinning its foundations.
Attempts to rectify the lean by architects over the next 180 years - the time it
took to complete the tower - ended in failure. Galileo famously made use of the
overhang when he dropped metal balls from the tower to show that falling bodies of
different weights descend at the same rate. At its worst the lean was 17.5 feet from
the vertical.
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