Add a review about the falling towers of Bologna

The falling towers of Bologna are not as widely known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but they are also a symbol of the city in which they are located. The tallest, Azinelli, is not as inclined as her neighbor, Garizenda, but it is much higher: the height of the Azinelli tower exceeds 97 m. This makes it the highest historical building of Old Bologna and the highest "falling" tower of the world.

Angle The slope of the Azinelli tower from the vertical axis is 1, 3 ° . It would seem that not so much, but with the height of the construction this leads to a deviation of the top of the tower by more than 2 meters . Nevertheless, Azinelli is able to withstand this position , but her neighbor, Garisenda, was less fortunate: the deviation The latter exceeded 3 m initially, and this seriously threatened both the construction itself and the surrounding Garishend's . Garisenda was shortened three times, and now her height is only 48 m . But she, and not the taller "sister", is mentioned in the " The Divine Comedy "Dante .

The height of the tower of Azinelli exceeds 97 m. This makes it the highest historical building of Old Bologna and the highest" falling "tower of the world.

The towers in principle were fashionable among the Italian nobility in the Middle Ages . The towers served as living quarters and fortified citadels, and also demonstrated greatness and affirmed the power of their master. In Bologna alone, you can see about 20 towers today, although there were about 150 of them originally in the 13th century.

The structure of the towers was more or less the same. In each, there was a foundation, reinforced with poles pinned to the ground, sprinkled with stone. The base was made of large stone blocks, and the walls became higher, the thinner. Usually there were two walls: a thicker inner and thin outer wall, and a gap between them was covered with rubble.

In the 18th century Giovanni Guglielmo studied gravity by throwing objects from the tower of Azinelli

With the construction of the "falling" towers, of course, many legends are connected, including the one that promises the beloved boy the beautiful hand only after the construction of the tallest tower in city ​​. However, the historical truth is rather that the construction technology at that time left much to be desired . In order to build a tower of a typical structure about 60 m high, it took 3 to 10 years of work . According to the vague data, Azinelli families of the same name your beginning to build at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries . A few centuries later the tower was taken over by the city, and a prison was built here . Neighboring towers were connected by a kind of bridge from the tree, but it burned down during a city fire . During the Second World War the tower of Azinelli was used as an observation post, and later as a TV tower .

Today the tower of Azinelli can be climbed up a spiral staircase, which has almost 500 steps. Garizenda is closed for inspection from the inside.

Other towers of Bologna, which are worth paying attention to, are Azzogildi, she is Altabella (61 m), Prendiparte, she is Coronata (60 m), Scappi (39 m), Uguzzoni (32 m), Gildozan and Galuzzi.

The falling towers are located at the intersection of roads leading to the five gates of the old city wall and can not be found.