FLORENCE, ITALY – Pisa city council has approved the installation of a 50-metre-high Ferris wheel five minutes’ walk from the Leaning Tower.
The Ferris wheel project
The project has been OK’d by the local cultural heritage superintendency. The council issued a tender for private companies to install and run the wheel on a three-month trial this summer, after which it might be moved.
The idea of the proponents is to install in Pisa an attraction like the wheel of the Prater in Vienna or the London Eye. Some environmental groups have said that the idea doesn’t go in the right direction to enhance the monuments in Piazza dei Miracoli.
The Leaning Tower
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa, known worldwide for its unintended tilt.
It is situated behind Pisa’s cathedral and is the third oldest structure in the city’s Cathedral Square (Piazza del Duomo), after the cathedral and the Pisa Baptistry.
The tower’s tilt began during construction, caused by an inadequate foundation on ground too soft on one side to properly support the structure’s weight.
The tilt increased in the decades before the structure was completed and gradually increased until the structure was stabilized (and the tilt partially corrected) by efforts in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
The height of the tower is 55.86 metres (183.27 feet) from the ground on the low side and 56.67 metres (185.93 feet) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 2.44 m (8 ft 0.06 in). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons).
The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees.This means the top of the tower is displaced horizontally 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) from the centre.