Title: Italia Pisa 3 The Leaning Tower
1PISA
3
Nel Campo dei Miracoli
Presenter NotesThe Ardea rotated over the sky of Christ, over
the meadow of Miracles." Gabriele d'Annunzio
2The name "Square of Miracles was created by the
Italian writer and poet Gabriele d'Annunzio
Presenter NotesThe Leaning Tower of Pisa (Italian Torre
pendente di Pisa) or simply the Tower of Pisa
(Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding
bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city
of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and
is the third oldest structure in Pisa's Cathedral
Square (Piazza del Duomo) after the Cathedral and
the Baptistry.
The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft)
from the ground on the low side and 56.70 m
(186.02 ft) on the high side. The width of the
walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the
top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). 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 that the top of the tower is
displaced horizontally 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in)
from where it would be if the structure were
perfectly vertical.
A popular tourist activity is to pose for
photographs pretending to "hold up" the leaning
tower and preventing it from falling. The
illusion is created through the principle of
forced perspective.
3Partly paved and partly grassed, Campo dei
Miracoli is dominated by four great religious
edifices the Duomo, the Leaning Tower (the
cathedral's campanile), the Baptistery and the
Camposanto.
Presenter NotesConstruction of the tower occurred in three
stages across 177 years. Work on the ground floor
of the white marble campanile began on August 8,
1173, during a period of military success and
prosperity. This ground floor is a blind arcade
articulated by engaged columns with classical
Corinthian capitals.
The tower began to sink after construction had
progressed to the second floor in 1178. This was
due to a mere three-metre foundation, set in
weak, unstable subsoil, a design that was flawed
from the beginning. Construction was subsequently
halted for almost a century, because the Republic
of Pisa was almost continually engaged in battles
with Genoa, Lucca and Florence. This allowed time
for the underlying soil to settle. Otherwise, the
tower would almost certainly have toppled. In
1198 clocks were temporarily installed on the
third floor of the unfinished construction.
4In 1987 the whole square was declared a UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Presenter NotesIn 1272 construction resumed under Giovanni di
Simone, architect of the Camposanto. In an effort
to compensate for the tilt, the engineers built
upper floors with one side taller than the other.
Because of this, the tower is actually
curved.Construction was halted again in 1284,
when the Pisans were defeated by the Genoans in
the Battle of Meloria.
The seventh floor was completed in 1319. It was
built by Tommaso di Andrea Pisano, who succeeded
in harmonizing the Gothic elements of the
bell-chamber with the Romanesque style of the
tower. There are seven bells, one for each note
of the musical major scale. The largest one was
installed in 1655. The bell-chamber was finally
added in 1372.
After a phase (19902001) of structural
strengthening,8 the tower is currently
undergoing gradual surface restoration, in order
to repair visual damage, mostly corrosion and
blackening. These are particularly pronounced due
to the tower's age and its exposure to wind and
rain.
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Presenter NotesGalileo Galilei is said to have dropped two
cannon balls of different masses from the tower
to demonstrate that their speed of descent was
independent of their mass. However, this is
considered an apocryphal tale, its only source
being Galileo's secretary.
During World War II, the Allies discovered that
the Germans were using the tower as an
observation post. A U.S. Army sergeant was
briefly entrusted with the fate of the tower and
his decision not to call in an artillery strike
kept the tower from being destroyed.
6The power of Pisa as a mighty maritime nation
began to grow and reached its apex in the 11th
century when it acquired traditional fame as one
of the four main historical Maritime Republics of
Italy (Repubbliche Marinare).
Pisa was in continuous conflict with the
Saracens, who had their bases in Corsica, for
control of the Mediterranean. Between 1030 and
1035, Pisa went on to successfully defeat several
rival towns in Sicily and conquer Carthage in
North Africa
Presenter NotesOn February 27, 1964, the government of Italy
requested aid in preventing the tower from
toppling. It was, however, considered important
to retain the current tilt, due to the vital role
that this element played in promoting the tourism
industry of Pisa.
A multinational task force of engineers,
mathematicians and historians gathered on the
Azores islands to discuss stabilization methods.
It was found that the tilt was increasing in
combination with the softer foundations on the
lower side. Many methods were proposed to
stabilize the tower, including the addition of
800 tonnes of lead counterweights to the raised
end of the base
In 1987 the tower was declared as part of the
Piazza del Duomo UNESCO World Heritage Site along
with the neighbouring cathedral, baptistery and
cemetery.
7In 10511052 the admiral Jacopo Ciurini conquered
Corsica, provoking more resentment from the
Genovese. In 1063 admiral Giovanni Orlando,
coming to the aid of the Norman Roger I, took
Palermo from the Saracen pirates. The gold
treasure taken from the Saracens in Palermo
allowed the Pisans to start the building of their
cathedral and the other monuments which
constitute the famous Piazza del Duomo
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9Architects began building this most famous of
medieval campaniles in 1173, but work stopped
abruptly five years later when they first noticed
a pronounced lean to the north. This was caused
by a weak foundation constructed on top of silty,
unstable soil from a former estuary. Only three
stories had gone up when they halted construction.
10 In 1250 when work resumed, architects began
trying to adjust the lean. Their effort caused
the Tower to have a slight banana shape by the
time they reached the eighth and final story as
the campanile stayed more or less vertical at
about the fifth floor.
11 By 1272, the tower began leaning toward the
south. Before they constructed the bell tower in
1350, architects actually tried to angle the top
of the tower back toward the north by adding four
steps on the north side and six steps on the
south side at the base of the bell tower, that
was what gave the Tower an ever-so-slight S
shape.
12For centuries, many have offered solutions to how
to right the tower. In 1934, engineers working
for Italian leader Benito Mussolini, who
considered the flawed tower antithetical to
Fascist ideals, tried to right it by injecting
almost 200 tons of cement into the base. The
"fix" actually added a tenth of a degree to the
tilt.
Presenter NotesAfter finishing secondary school in 1980, Andrea
Bocelli studied law at the University of Pisa.
To earn money Bocelli performed evenings in piano
bars. He completed law school and spent one year
as a court-appointed lawyer.
It was there, in 1987, that he met his future
wife, Enrica.
13In the 1950s, officials silenced the seven bells,
the largest of which weighs three and a half
tons, for fear their vibrations could trigger a
collapse.
14And in 1990, at a time when 700,000 annual
visitors were ascending the campanile and the
lean increased by one-20th of an inch every year,
officials closed Pisa's famous Torre Pendente to
the public
15Since then, many experts have tried numerous
methods to right or at least halt the lean of the
56m tower, whose top today lies 4,67m south of
the base. Sophisticated monitors were installed,
which can detect movements at the campanile's
apex to within four-ten-thousandths of an inch.
These instruments pick up the tower's daily sway
of about one-hundredth of an inch, which is
caused by the temperature of the sun-facing south
side rising by day and falling at night.
16The device also picked up a frightening overnight
increase in the lean, in what committee members
recall as "Black September." On September 6th,
1995, after engineers had added 600 tons of lead
ingots to the north side to counteract the
southward tilt, the tower jumped one-sixteenth of
an inch to the south. In tower terms, that's a
lot, and some feared the tower would imminently
topple. Within 24 hours, engineers began adding
an additional 230 tons of lead, and the movement
stopped.
17After a decade of corrective reconstruction and
stabilization efforts, the tower was reopened to
the public on December 15, 2001, and was declared
stable for at least another 300 years
18In May 2008, after the removal of another 70
metric tons (77 short tons) of earth, engineers
announced that the Tower had been stabilized such
that it had stopped moving for the first time in
its history. They stated it would be stable for
at least 200 years
19The museum of the Cathedral Vestry Board The
museum contains works which used to adorn the
monuments of the Piazza dei Miracoli and which,
mainly for safety reasons, had been moved to the
warehouses of the Cathedral Vestry Board. It
was set up in 1986 in a specially restored
building, between Piazza dell' Arcivescovado and
Piazza del Duomo
Presenter Notesthe bronze hippogryph
Un hippogriffe est une créature imaginaire
hybride, d'apparence mi-cheval et mi-aigle, qui
ressemble à un cheval ailé avec la tête et les
membres antérieurs d'un aigle. Sa figure est
peut-être issue du bestiaire fabuleux des Perses
et de leur Simorgh, au travers du griffon.
Son origine est évoquée par le poète latin
Virgile dans ses Églogues et s'il est quelquefois
représenté à l'époque antique et sous les
Mérovingiens, il est clairement nommé et défini
pour la première fois dans l'œuvre de l'Arioste,
le Roland furieux (Orlando furioso), au début du
XVIe siècle. Dans ce roman de chevalerie inscrit
dans la continuité du cycle carolingien,
l'hippogriffe est une monture naturellement née
de l'accouplement d'une jument et d'un griffon,
extrêmement rapide et capable de voler autour du
monde, chevauchée par les magiciens et de nobles
héros, tel le paladin Roger qui délivre la belle
Angélique sur son dos. Symbole des pulsions
incontrôlées, l'hippogriffe emporte Alstophe
jusque sur la lune. Le succès de ce roman fait
que la figure et le nom de l'hippogriffe sont
repris dans d'autres histoires du même type.
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21Medieval statues in the Museo del Duomo of Pisa
22A detail from the 12th century bronze doors that
once graced the cathedral.
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31Text Internet Pictures Daniela Iacob All
copyrights belong to their respective owners
Presentation Sanda Foisoreanu
2011
Sound Celine Dion, Andreea Bocelli The
prayer
Presenter Notes"The Prayer" was nominated 2000 Grammy Award for
Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. "Sogno" was
nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Male
Pop Vocal Performance.There seems to be no end
to the market for Latin tenors who inhabit the
peculiar world most often termed "crossover." The
well-known "Three Tenors" travel the boundaries
between classical music, songs from their
homelands and European pop songs frequently and
with ease. The success of these artists is also
being enjoyed by Bocelli, who was launched as a
superstar in the United States in late 1997 by
pledge-time showings of his television special on
PBS. His then-current album ROMANZA shot up the
charts, followed in short order by VIAGGIO
ITALIANO (a mix of opera and traditional Italian
songs in the manner of Mario Lanza or Enrico
Caruso) and ARIA-THE OPERA ALBUM.Now with SOGNO
(Italian for "dream," pronounced "soh-nyo")
Bocelli returns to the all-pop sound of ROMANZA.
The program is entirely in Italian, with
translations provided, and fans of the tenor need
not fear disappointment. Duets with Celine Dion,
Dulce Pontes, and Eros Ramazzotti are highlights,
and Bocelli is in top form throughout. For those
who've not yet made this singer's acquaintance,
SOGNO makes an excellent introduction. Be warned,
however, that it may induce cravings for his
previous albums!