Wednesday, January 31, 2007

St Mark's Bell Tower in Venice Emulating Tower of Pisa

The ANNOTICO Report

 

 

Italy Moves to Avoid Leaning Tower of Venice

 

Independent Online - Cape Town,South Africa

 January 31 2007 

Venice - One leaning tower is enough for Italy, according to local authorities in Venice, who plan to reinforce the foundations of St Mark's bell tower to stop it falling down.

The 99-metre campanile which dominates Venice's main square has long been known to contain a crack, but only now have authorities decided to act to ensure it does not get any bigger.

"When you have things like this, we can't know exactly what's going to happen," said Ettore Via, who as curator of St Marks is in charge of conservation of the basilica and its bell tower whose history goes back to the 12th century.

The bell tower was built after the existing 16th century structure collapsed in 1902. But the new tower was found to contain a fissure, discovered in 1939, which is very slowly spreading.

The work will involve wrapping a titanium belt around the tower's foundations, between one metre and three metres below the ground, at a cost of six million euros.

The pro ject will start within the next six months and take a year and a half to finish.

The tower is not the only architectural treasure in Venice under threat.

The entire city - built on a lagoon and crisscrossed by canals - suffers from periodic flooding. The government has just begun a multi-billion-euro floodgate project aimed at stopping rising sea levels destroying the town.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa, in Tuscany, owes its characteristic lean to poorly made foundations. Conservation work has ensured the 12th century bell tower does not fall over

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id

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