It leans a little less than the one in Pisa, but then, it's in worse shape than the one right next to it. So the Garisenda Tower in the Italian city of Bologna—a 12th-century structure that awed Dickens and Dante—is being shut down for a long restoration. "We're not intervening because we think it could collapse at any moment," said Mayor Matteo Lepore, "we're intervening because we want to make it safe and restore it." Some residents are more concerned, per the Guardian. "I am afraid to think about losing something that is part of the city's soul," Carlo Lucarelli, an author and screenwriter, told a newspaper. "I've always taken the two towers for granted, but with affection, in the same way you might take the presence of a brother for granted."
The work will take a few years, city officials said, and will require the neighboring Asinelli Tower to close, as well; that tower, which is twice as high, has allowed visitors to climb up inside it. The Garisenda leans 4 degrees, which experts think was caused by ground subsidence in the 14th century. It was shortened at some point. Bologna once had dozens of towers built by families, per CNN, evidently as displays of their prominence. The area around the towers already has been closed off—not for safety, officials say, but to allow various instruments monitoring the tower to collect precise data.
University of Bologna scientists first detected a worrisome increase in the tower's oscillation. The foundation will be shored up to counter the problem. An official in Italy's culture ministry on Sunday criticized the local stewardship, per Euronews, saying the scientists monitoring the tower "underestimated the situation." The national government will kick in to help pay for the work, Lucia Borgonzoni said. "The government has moved to save the iconic Bologna tower after the city council wasted time," she said. (More Bologna stories.)
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