8 Leaning Tower of Pisa Facts for Kids

1. The Leaning Tower of Pisa is located in Italy. It is a very popular tourist attraction and a building with a very interesting history. The Leaning Tower of Pisa was never meant to lean. It was constructed between 1173-1372. It is 183 feet tall.

2. It is made of marble and stone. It was constructed as the bell tower for the cathedral for the city of Pisa Italy in Tuscany. It is one of the oldest buildings in the cathedral square. It began to tilt to one side during its construction due to an inadequate foundation built on ground that was too soft.

3. It continued to tilt to one side until it finally stabilized. Initially the tower leaned to one side by about 5 degrees but the leaning was adjusted to about 3 degrees due to repairs in the late 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

4. It stood at a very odd angle for centuries but had gotten to the point where it needed to be shored up for fear that it would completely tilt over.

5. This historical building was closed to the public in 1989 because of the fear that it would in fact topple over. Authorities were afraid to straighten the building out too much because they did not want to negatively affect tourism. The bells were removed from the tower to relieve some of the weight and apartments and buildings that were in line of the potentially crumbling tower were evacuated.

During World War II

6. During the WWII an American soldier was sent to investigate the tower because it was suspected that the Germans were using the tower as a lookout point. It is said that the American soldier was so taken back with the beauty of the tower that even though the Germans were using the tower as a lookout point he never called in the artillery round that would destroy the tower.

The Stabilization

7. In 2008 after about 20 years of work and planning the tower was guaranteed stable by engineers from around the globe. Engineers and mathematicians had been working on “fixing” the leaning tower since 1989 and had finally arrived at a solution for not so much repairing the lean but to keep the lean from getting worse and the tower eventually crumbling.

8. The fix is said to be guaranteed up to 200 years. The tower has finally stopped moving for the first time since it was constructed.