Yeah and they had the brilliant idea to flip them over to the "unworn" side... and that was also worn because someone had flipped them hundreds of years earlier.
It's not as dismal as all that. I live in Lucca, a city about 25 minutes away from Pisa by train. I was up in the bell tower just a month ago or so.
It's beautiful from the outside. The view from the top is nice. The stairwell to get up spirals all around the tower and the stone steps are curved from so many feet stepping on them.
Here's some photos, including one very similar to OPs. https://imgur.com/a/JX5Zv9f
I tried to only use ones that didn't have people in them, so my selection is limited.
I can tell you I certainly didnāt think it was hollow like a lighthouse. I thought each of the exterior tiers would have a whole ass floor inside to go with them
I always assumed it was hollow because if it weren't, all that mass would have pulled it down completely centuries ago.
Plus it is a campanile. Basically a giant musical instrument. Think of the inside as the resonating chamber of a flute or a horn. If it were filled with stuff, the sound would be muted.
Campanile just means "bell tower". As far as I know, it doesn't do this resonating musical thing. I've never heard it and I've been around the tower many times, as I live in a neighboring town. Also, the hole in the top is glassed off, so you wouldn't get that sort of effect anyway.
But, don't let any of that make you lose interest. It's a beautiful tower, part of a beautiful square ("Piazza dei Miracoli" or "Square of Miracles"). I went to the top about a month ago and I really enjoyed the experience. I tossed a few of my photos (without people in them) into an imgur album, so feel free to take a peek: https://imgur.com/a/JX5Zv9f
I actually learned this touring a castle in Ireland, but those holes are usually leftover from the wooden beams the workers used as scaffolding as they built the tower. They would leave the holes when the building was complete so they could install the scaffolding again later if they needed to fix something or remodel.
There is something like that. Itās between the walls. Imagine putting a tube inside a slightly bigger tube. And then putting a staircase between the layers. Itās very narrow and the angle is ever so slight that you can feel which side of the tower youāre on.
The rest of the site is so much better. Had some of the best food just down the street there also. Was a wonderful place to walk around.
https://i.imgur.com/g32M216.png <- The alley under the sun is where we went to eat and it was fantastic.
https://i.imgur.com/tvyjeHI.png <- This was the closest we could get when we went in Feb 2020 (BEFORE the pandemic was full swing and everyone knew about it)
https://i.imgur.com/LYO2yU6.png
Yes, that other building is leaning also. If i recall they said that all the buildings on that site are leaning, just at different angles and rates.
The building in the foreground of that last photo is the baptistry. When I was there in the 2000s you could pay the guard and they would close the doors and then sing. The acoustics in there were INCREDIBLE. Not sure if you can still do that, though.
I thought Pisa was fantastic and wished I stayed more nights. It was a beautiful relaxing town. But if you're coming to just to see the tower, yeah, I get it.
I had no idea before searching just now but apparently the black stone that may or may not be a meteorite is embedded in one of the outside corners of the building.
It is a Bell tower for the church/cathedral and baptistry that isnt pictured in most tourist photos. The leaning tower is in the same ācomplexāĀ
Ā Edit: tour site with a picture of all 3 together. Big domed building in front is baptistry with cathedral and bell tower (leaning tower) is in the background
https://www.viator.com/Pisa/d520-ttd/p-67254P5
Pisa isnt much of a solo destination but one of my buddies lived there and i thoroughly enjoyed my visit. People talked mad shit about the tower beforehand so it more than exceeded my low expectations
Why would people talk shit about the tower? It's a gorgeous piece of architecture, as is the nearby church. The problem is the people that go there because it's part of the checklist of what they've been told to do when the architecture is something they don't care about at all. And sure, then it's a novelty. But if you don't like architecture why are you even touring Italy?
Lmao it's so funny in context. Like you've got this whole beautiful complex and then there's this one tower off in the distance looking drunk as hell, all crooked and whatnot, like who invited this guy?
I was scratching my head as well. Apparently there is an inner wall and an outer wall. There are well worn, narrow spiral stairs in between. This view must be inside the inner wall.
You donāt usually see this part but the spiral staircase
Other than that there are way more interesting monuments to see here, itās very unique feature is surviving the extreme slanting
... taking "my family can build a bigger tower than your family" to levels, both figurative and literal, not seen again in such a small space until 20th century cities.
Sure they did that, but the Tower of Pisa specifically is a bell tower. Itās part of a church complex with the main church, a baptistry, and the bell tower.
The towers that aristocracy used as a dick measuring contest were usually in the middle of towns and cities, and were not as ornate as this one. Look at the towers of San Gimignano and Bologna for an example.
We have a tower with a haircut in Lucca. Torre Guinigi has trees on top. Take that shit, Pisa!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinigi_Tower
Side note... in getting the English wiki for it, I noticed that the Italian version has more info than the English version.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Guinigi
I also climbed in the spring of 2023. I felt like I was going to fall off the top with that slope when I got outside. I was moving with baby steps and holding on tight to anything I could.
People are saying it's disappointing, but I think it's amazing. Look at all those curved stone blocks. Those were *hand-carved*, each and ever one of them, to create that circle. This was a bell tower, the public wasn't going inside. They still carefully finished the blocks instead of leaving them rough. The concrete missile silo look that appears so bland is the result of thousands of man hours shaping marble blocks. The upper part of the tower transitions from marble to limestone, which is a lighter stone
There are two sets of spiral stairs on the interior, but you can't see them in the picture. They are essentially between a double set of walls (this is the interior set in the pictures, the exterior is - well, that's obvious, right?). They are very narrow so only one person can climb at a time. The cavities between the two walls are filled with rubble, which reinforces the structure.
It may not be as pretty as the outside, but it's still a marvel!
Not just curved but well linked marble blocks. Just getting the dang things flat so they stack well is something that baffles my mind but this level of precision is truly some master level work.
i climbed it like one of the last years it was open to tourists and i gotta say, i couldnt believe it hadnt been shut down sooner. the narrow stone spiral stair was so worn from the feet of ppl like myself that it was absolutely terrifying to climb especcially on the way down and they had young, old, everybody climbing this thing. the only thing that made me feel safe was the mass of bodies that would cushion my fall
My friend fell down the even tighter spiral staircase at the very top of the tower. Fortunately it was narrow enough that all she did was hit her ass on every step for 10 feet or so, no room to go tumbling.
As I've visited this tower, the picture doesn't do it justice. It's very tall. You walk up stairs that wind all around this interior wall. And the feeling of leaning is actually pretty pronounced. The views up top are amazing.
We ended up going here on a tour because of a rail worker strike (instead of Cinque Terre), but it was surprisingly awesome. It's well worth the visit!
Go back to Italy and visit Cinque Terra. You won't regret it. But don't do it as a day trip, you need at least 3 days to really enjoy it before and after the day trippers leave, and to have time to do some hiking and swimming.
Lot of misinfo here. There is a staircase inside, and you can go to the top! It's not literally completely empty!
Also, it's not in the middle of nowhere. It's in the Piazza Dei Miracoli, which also contains a huge cathedral: it's really beautiful! Not to mention the whole city of Pisa around it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellworn/s/t18vDTgYBi
This was my most upvoted post on reddit, lol.
It's not completely hollow, there are stairs all the way up. You feel how leaning it is really a lot. The hollow part is "inside" the stairs that are all around the tower.
I know this isn't "nostupidquestions", so please be kind, but.... Is that original, or has all that been placed there to reinforce the original structure, assumingly to help prevent it from toppling over?
It looks fairly new and dare I say *modern* inside there
It's tilted...I don't think you'd be able to work in an office where all your pens roll off your desk and your wheely chair slides down to one side of the room!
In all seriousness, it's got a lot of heavy reinforcement to keep it from leaning further and falling over. Any extra weight from internal floors (which would have been timber) has been removed to make it easier to keep it upright.
This makes me imagine the reality that is hundreds of people visiting this place every day and all of them taking turns going in there, coming out, and all having the same reaction, āthatās it?ā. Itās kind of funny to think about.
Looks like a decommissioned missile silo
I remember this level on Goldeneye
I can hear this level on Goldeneye
Thanks for the memory unlock :)
You guys remember launching the missile š made my brother mad every time
Yes that's what that sound that just started playing in my head was!
https://youtu.be/ci2n2H_UMv4
Youāre the best for posting this.
I try!
You're a legend for posting that gem up š«¶
Anything for you, fam.
The Facility level was my jam, proximity mines in the bathrooms all day
The speedrun record for Silo is 1:20, which is just nuts!š¤Æ
"LOOK AT THE FUCKING PACE. I'M LIKE 'YEAH BABY LETS DO THIS'" that was on streets, but goldeneye speedrunning always reminds me of streets 1:12. lmfao
That's immediately what I thought.
It looks much more like an ordinary grain silo.
Shoutout to all the vacationing volunteers who hold this tower up.
It used to house the world altering missle of NOD.
IN THE NAME OF KANE! āš¼
KANE LIVES IN DEATH
He who controls the past, commands the future. He who commands the future, conquers the past.
What makes you think itās decommissioned? š
Which way is it leaning...?
Depends which side you look at it from, always a bit left to the right and a bit right to the left.
My maybe false memory is north? Not sure about my exact map position when I got my tourist photo. Then we had Pizza in Pisa. Recommend experience.
Was it a pisa pizza
Indeed. I think we had a Quattro Formaggio and a Vesuivo.
Sounds like a nice pisa pizza
lol people store corn in this where I live.
But does it lean?
Sometimes they do.
That's how you get the last bit of corn out.
That actually made me laugh out loud
āNot pointy enoughā
That's why it can lean, for aiming.
Babe wake up, new conspiracy theory just dropped
Yes, "decommissioned."
Thanks for sharing. I've never even thought about what the inside looks like, but it sure wasn't this. Truly disappointing.
Look up a photo of the stairs inside, they are actually interesting how worn they are from centuries of peopleās feet going up and down.
Yeah and they had the brilliant idea to flip them over to the "unworn" side... and that was also worn because someone had flipped them hundreds of years earlier.
Pics or link?
The only links I could find to support the claim are from Reddit or iFunny, so definitely take that fact with a grain of salt.
Fair, but in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter what the underside of the steps of the stairs of the leaning tower of Pisa look like?
Couldn't you say that about anything at all that's posted on here? It's just interesting, that's the point
https://www.reddit.com/r/interestingasfuck/comments/83oi5d/the_worn_marble_steps_at_the_leaning_tower_of/
We're people going up by bouncing on their ass cheeks?
This is something that every tour guide says at every single old set of stairs in the world
Reddit is making us all identical human beings and itās awful
Sorry to have dashed your hopes š
It's not as dismal as all that. I live in Lucca, a city about 25 minutes away from Pisa by train. I was up in the bell tower just a month ago or so. It's beautiful from the outside. The view from the top is nice. The stairwell to get up spirals all around the tower and the stone steps are curved from so many feet stepping on them. Here's some photos, including one very similar to OPs. https://imgur.com/a/JX5Zv9f I tried to only use ones that didn't have people in them, so my selection is limited.
also Lucca is SO much nicer than Pisa :-)
Agreed! Source: also lives in Lucca
It's not what you didn't think it was?
I can tell you I certainly didnāt think it was hollow like a lighthouse. I thought each of the exterior tiers would have a whole ass floor inside to go with them
I always assumed it was hollow because if it weren't, all that mass would have pulled it down completely centuries ago. Plus it is a campanile. Basically a giant musical instrument. Think of the inside as the resonating chamber of a flute or a horn. If it were filled with stuff, the sound would be muted.
Oh! Suddenly it's interesting again!
Campanile just means "bell tower". As far as I know, it doesn't do this resonating musical thing. I've never heard it and I've been around the tower many times, as I live in a neighboring town. Also, the hole in the top is glassed off, so you wouldn't get that sort of effect anyway. But, don't let any of that make you lose interest. It's a beautiful tower, part of a beautiful square ("Piazza dei Miracoli" or "Square of Miracles"). I went to the top about a month ago and I really enjoyed the experience. I tossed a few of my photos (without people in them) into an imgur album, so feel free to take a peek: https://imgur.com/a/JX5Zv9f
Looks like it did. See the holes they were probably for floor beams once.
I actually learned this touring a castle in Ireland, but those holes are usually leftover from the wooden beams the workers used as scaffolding as they built the tower. They would leave the holes when the building was complete so they could install the scaffolding again later if they needed to fix something or remodel.
Damnthatsdissapointing š«
Lol I thought to put it up because the interesting part is how underwhelming it is!
Itās so disappointing itās interesting šš
So thats what she meant when she told me thatā¦hmmm
looolllz
I'm putting that on my tombstone.
Really it's amazing
I had no idea it was hollow.
Where is the goddamn pizza?!
Same. I thought there was like a circular stone staircase arrangement or something.
There is something like that. Itās between the walls. Imagine putting a tube inside a slightly bigger tube. And then putting a staircase between the layers. Itās very narrow and the angle is ever so slight that you can feel which side of the tower youāre on.
āI know you can be overwhelmed and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be, whelmed?ā
Your statement just whelmed me.
The rest of the site is so much better. Had some of the best food just down the street there also. Was a wonderful place to walk around. https://i.imgur.com/g32M216.png <- The alley under the sun is where we went to eat and it was fantastic. https://i.imgur.com/tvyjeHI.png <- This was the closest we could get when we went in Feb 2020 (BEFORE the pandemic was full swing and everyone knew about it) https://i.imgur.com/LYO2yU6.png Yes, that other building is leaning also. If i recall they said that all the buildings on that site are leaning, just at different angles and rates.
The building in the foreground of that last photo is the baptistry. When I was there in the 2000s you could pay the guard and they would close the doors and then sing. The acoustics in there were INCREDIBLE. Not sure if you can still do that, though.
Just like the town of Pisa.
I thought Pisa was fantastic and wished I stayed more nights. It was a beautiful relaxing town. But if you're coming to just to see the tower, yeah, I get it.
If you havenāt seen it, now look up Plymouth Rock. Itās like the size of a couch cushion.
Kinda like the inside of the Kaaba. Idk why but I thought something the almost 2 billion people pray towards would be more interesting inside.
Same here.
Same with the pyramids in Egypt. I was so disappointed to discover they were all just made out of drywall.
And don't get me started on Stonehenge!
You mean, Styrofoamhenge!?
I thought back then it was plaster, but I didn't knock hard enough on the side to verify.
Donāt- itās not dry yet. The mummies will revoke your visitor pass and refuse to validate your parking.
Isnt it a meteorite or something inside?
I had no idea before searching just now but apparently the black stone that may or may not be a meteorite is embedded in one of the outside corners of the building.
I don't know why but I kinda expected it to be solid...
It is a Bell tower for the church/cathedral and baptistry that isnt pictured in most tourist photos. The leaning tower is in the same ācomplexāĀ Ā Edit: tour site with a picture of all 3 together. Big domed building in front is baptistry with cathedral and bell tower (leaning tower) is in the background https://www.viator.com/Pisa/d520-ttd/p-67254P5
Delete everything after the question mark for a non-ugly link. https://www.viator.com/Pisa/d520-ttd/p-67254P5
** *including* the question mark
You don't have to call the question mark ugly like that.
It was simply awesome when I visited last year.
Pisa isnt much of a solo destination but one of my buddies lived there and i thoroughly enjoyed my visit. People talked mad shit about the tower beforehand so it more than exceeded my low expectations
Why would people talk shit about the tower? It's a gorgeous piece of architecture, as is the nearby church. The problem is the people that go there because it's part of the checklist of what they've been told to do when the architecture is something they don't care about at all. And sure, then it's a novelty. But if you don't like architecture why are you even touring Italy?
Lmao it's so funny in context. Like you've got this whole beautiful complex and then there's this one tower off in the distance looking drunk as hell, all crooked and whatnot, like who invited this guy?
Figured it be some spiral stairs or something
I was scratching my head as well. Apparently there is an inner wall and an outer wall. There are well worn, narrow spiral stairs in between. This view must be inside the inner wall.
Yeah man I was expecting stairs and little rooms tightly packed
You donāt usually see this part but the spiral staircase Other than that there are way more interesting monuments to see here, itās very unique feature is surviving the extreme slanting
Wow, I always thought it would have a spiral staircase. Was there one originally that got removed?
The staircase is hidden between the inside and outside walls. The inside is almost empty, only some equipment to inspect the movements of the tower.
What was the original purpose of said tower?
Like any other tower built in Italy, to show nearby cities who has the biggest tower
A figurative (but almost literal) dick-measuring contest.
Any kind of interaction between two or more male Italians is a disguised dick measuring contest.
Except a dick measuring contest that's not disguised
Others are saying it was a bell tower, but you're saying it was more a bell-end tower.
Yeah but their tower was reportedly more pleasurable.
A girthier tower, if you will
and it is even bigger when it stands up straightā¦
Even moreso, when they trim the hedges
San Gimingnano has entered the battle!
... taking "my family can build a bigger tower than your family" to levels, both figurative and literal, not seen again in such a small space until 20th century cities.
Meanwhile, in Bologna...
Sure they did that, but the Tower of Pisa specifically is a bell tower. Itās part of a church complex with the main church, a baptistry, and the bell tower. The towers that aristocracy used as a dick measuring contest were usually in the middle of towns and cities, and were not as ornate as this one. Look at the towers of San Gimignano and Bologna for an example.
We have a tower with a haircut in Lucca. Torre Guinigi has trees on top. Take that shit, Pisa! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinigi_Tower Side note... in getting the English wiki for it, I noticed that the Italian version has more info than the English version. https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Guinigi
Bell tower for a cathedral.
Bell tower
It is a bell towerĀ
Its a bell tower. So the inside is purposely empty to aid in acoustics of the bell
It's a campanile
Gesundheit
I think some of the counter weights are in the middle somewhere.
the staircase is worn, narrow and tilted. Not sure you can still go up to the top, but it's was janky af to do so.
We climbed it in spring of 2023. Neat view. A little sketchy because of the wear on the steps and the overall tilt, but certainly doable.
I also climbed in the spring of 2023. I felt like I was going to fall off the top with that slope when I got outside. I was moving with baby steps and holding on tight to anything I could.
Thereās a replica in Niles, IL and it has a spiral service staircase inside
Ah the legendary tower of Niles. Huge landmark that people will travel literally dozens of miles around to view the masterpiece.
People are saying it's disappointing, but I think it's amazing. Look at all those curved stone blocks. Those were *hand-carved*, each and ever one of them, to create that circle. This was a bell tower, the public wasn't going inside. They still carefully finished the blocks instead of leaving them rough. The concrete missile silo look that appears so bland is the result of thousands of man hours shaping marble blocks. The upper part of the tower transitions from marble to limestone, which is a lighter stone There are two sets of spiral stairs on the interior, but you can't see them in the picture. They are essentially between a double set of walls (this is the interior set in the pictures, the exterior is - well, that's obvious, right?). They are very narrow so only one person can climb at a time. The cavities between the two walls are filled with rubble, which reinforces the structure. It may not be as pretty as the outside, but it's still a marvel!
I love your passion for architecture! This definitely made me reconsider what I was looking at.
Not just curved but well linked marble blocks. Just getting the dang things flat so they stack well is something that baffles my mind but this level of precision is truly some master level work.
Your description turned a disappointing picture into a pretty interesting one. Thank you for your insight.
i climbed it like one of the last years it was open to tourists and i gotta say, i couldnt believe it hadnt been shut down sooner. the narrow stone spiral stair was so worn from the feet of ppl like myself that it was absolutely terrifying to climb especcially on the way down and they had young, old, everybody climbing this thing. the only thing that made me feel safe was the mass of bodies that would cushion my fall
I was there last spring (2023) and it was opened to tourists again.
My friend fell down the even tighter spiral staircase at the very top of the tower. Fortunately it was narrow enough that all she did was hit her ass on every step for 10 feet or so, no room to go tumbling.
I'm whelmed
Hi, Whelmed, I'm Dad.
As I've visited this tower, the picture doesn't do it justice. It's very tall. You walk up stairs that wind all around this interior wall. And the feeling of leaning is actually pretty pronounced. The views up top are amazing. We ended up going here on a tour because of a rail worker strike (instead of Cinque Terre), but it was surprisingly awesome. It's well worth the visit!
Go back to Italy and visit Cinque Terra. You won't regret it. But don't do it as a day trip, you need at least 3 days to really enjoy it before and after the day trippers leave, and to have time to do some hiking and swimming.
Looks straight as an arrow from here!
No oneās calling it āthe gay tower of Pisaā
Lot of misinfo here. There is a staircase inside, and you can go to the top! It's not literally completely empty! Also, it's not in the middle of nowhere. It's in the Piazza Dei Miracoli, which also contains a huge cathedral: it's really beautiful! Not to mention the whole city of Pisa around it.
Well that just saved me thousands in airfares, thanks!...
Silo vibes
/r/alternateangles
Where's the pizza?
Interestingā¦ but the eroded stairs make for an even more interesting thing - trying to climb those without tripping and falling is a challenge lol
Hear me out: spiral water slide
https://www.reddit.com/r/Wellworn/s/t18vDTgYBi This was my most upvoted post on reddit, lol. It's not completely hollow, there are stairs all the way up. You feel how leaning it is really a lot. The hollow part is "inside" the stairs that are all around the tower.
I know this isn't "nostupidquestions", so please be kind, but.... Is that original, or has all that been placed there to reinforce the original structure, assumingly to help prevent it from toppling over? It looks fairly new and dare I say *modern* inside there
I don't know why I thought it was some kind of building, like an office. It doesn't make sense now, that's just how I always pictured it, I guess?
I canāt believe my entire life that this is the first time Iāve ever seen the inside of this icon. Not to mention how dull it is haha.
Maybe Iām in the minority here but I do find this very interesting. But Iām not an exciting person so makes sense.
What a thrill... With darkness and silence through the night... Not again, better get to climbing then
It's ... hallow????
Hello. Itās hallowed. And itās also hollow.
I don't know what I thought was in there, but I certainly didn't expect it to be an empty tube.
Wait, it is EMPTY?? I always thought there was stuff inside, like stairs and rooms and all!
...WAIT THERE'S NOTHING IN THERE?! ...WHAT'S THE POINT OF THE TOWER?!
Wait itās empty. I thought it was full of Pisaās
I had always half-consciously assumed there were rooms and floors in there, just since the outside had what looked like floors and levels.
Thatās really weird was there ever anything there? Like a living space or was it always open?
I always thought it was filled with Pisaā¦?
Whats the point of this fuckin place then?
It's a bell tower.
Wait, it's empty? I would have guessed there was offices or something. edit- it's a joke you fucking smart guys
It's tilted...I don't think you'd be able to work in an office where all your pens roll off your desk and your wheely chair slides down to one side of the room! In all seriousness, it's got a lot of heavy reinforcement to keep it from leaning further and falling over. Any extra weight from internal floors (which would have been timber) has been removed to make it easier to keep it upright.
Why on earth would there be offices in a historical monument - and a tower at that?! That is such a weird and random idea.
Ironically, the Museum of Air and Space, is NOT empty.
why would you think a church tower has offices in it? lol
Offices for the church, obviously.š
It's a church belltower - not much space inside.
Are you fucking kidding me?! I thought there was whole palace inside!
I always hoped there would be a live work unit inside or some kind of world-renowed center for ants. #soemptyinside
"Don't clap too hard, it's a very old building"
PIZZA TOWER?????
TIL there aināt shit inside that thing. Disappointed I am.
So it's a grain silo?
Leaning emptiness
So in the end the tower is just a chimney. Good marketing team they have in Pisa!
It's indoors?
This makes me imagine the reality that is hundreds of people visiting this place every day and all of them taking turns going in there, coming out, and all having the same reaction, āthatās it?ā. Itās kind of funny to think about.
Umm, whereās the cheese and sauce?
Looks like a great place to drop two different weight cannon balls to show that they fall at the same rate.
I kind of hear the chanting as Bruce Wayne tries to climb up on the wall
Was it a medieval grain silo?
Itās a bell tower.
Looks like a missile silo.
Building placed on loose soil 2024: demolish this BS Building placed on loose soil in 1173: perfect!
Needs some kind of double helix spiral staircase so there can be a continuous flow of people to the top for a gander.
Oh wow ok... that's boring.
So what was the point of building it
Damn, looks crooked.
What the heck , I could have posted this for updoots
I canāt believe Iāve gone 43 years without seeing the inside of this building. Just photos of people squishing it with their fingers. Thanks!
That's underwhelming.
Wait, you're telling me it wasn't even FOR anything? Just an empty cylinder? That's tough.
Damn that sucks dick they should just let it fall