This week, streets surrounding the leaning Garisenda tower in Bologna have been cordoned off as scientists monitor the structure and neighboring infrastructure for evidence of movement and cracking, by order of the city mayor Matteo Lepore.
The Garisenda tower stands at 48 meters (158 feet) and was built in the 12th century. At the time it was one of the many small towers built by the patrician and merchant families of Bologna. The Asinelli Tower, neighboring the Garisenda, stands almost twice as tall; visits have temporarily been suspended while the work is being done.
The tower today stands leaning at an angle of four degrees, a little straighter than the infamous Leaning Tower of Pisa, at 5. The particular cant was already noticeable not long after its construction; Dante Alighieri, when writing the “Inferno” wrote about the dizzying sensation of looking up the Garisenda’s leaning side.
Scientists have been monitoring the tower and the area in its vicinity since 2018, primarily using visual recording data, acoustic sensors, and pendulums. Blocking the streets off to vehicle traffic is more about registering accurate readings than about public safety, according to city officials; they remind us that the tower “has been leaning for several centuries, and it has been the subject of various interventions over decades.”
A report is due at the end of November. Any potential future work that the tower may need will be conducted by the same company that worked on clearing and assessing the collapse of the Morandi Bridge in Genoa.
Lepore stressed the importance of the Garisenda and Asinelli towers, saying they were the symbol of Bologna, and told the public that they are doing everything possible to ensure their safety in the decades to come.
City locals aren’t overly concerned, however. The ancient architecture for Italians is so ingrained in the cultural psyche it has become more landscape than infrastructure; the tower has been leaning almost since its inception and its current situation doesn’t seem to worry them much. “We have never felt it to be a problem,” says one.
The work on the tower follows a string of accusations by right-wing Northern League’s Lucia Borgonzoni in which she claims the situation surrounding the infrastructure is poised for disaster.
Lepore insists he would “abstain from the political debate, not because I don’t want to participate… but because I believe that when there are important decisions to be made, including doing the right thing from an institutional point of view, it should be done calmly and with a clear conscience.”
