The Tower of Pisa Isn’t the Most Leaning Tower in the World
How much does the Tower of Pisa lean?
The Tower of Pisa is the bell tower of the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta. A freestanding campanile built between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, it is defined by a curving line, rows of blind arcading and six tiers of little loggias. Its lean is due to a settling of the ground beneath it that began already in the earliest phases of construction. The building tilts 3.97° from the vertical axis.
So which is the most leaning tower in the world?
The most leaning tower in the world stands in Germany, in the region of Ostfriesland (East Frisia), a land that borders the Netherlands to the west and is washed to the north by the Wadden Sea, whose coasts are a UNESCO World Heritage site for their ecosystem and morphology. In this borderland rises the Leaning Tower of Suurhusen — the most tilted tower in the world. Built in the Middle Ages on marshy ground, the Suurhusen tower stands beside the church of the little village (home to about 1,000 people) and next to the pitch of the amateur soccer club SV Concordia Suurhusen.
The difference in lean
At 5.19° of tilt, the Suurhusen tower is recognized by Guinness World Records as the most leaning tower in the world. The others in the ranking are:
1 – Leaning Tower of Suurhusen, 5.19° (Germany)
2 – Bad Frankenhausen church tower, 4.8° (Germany)
3 – Tower of Bologna, 4.0° (Italy)
4 – Tower of Pisa, 3.97° (Italy)
5 – Tiger Hill Pagoda, 3.0° (China)
6 – Nevyansk Tower, 3.0° (Russia)
7 – Parliament Clock Tower, 0.26° (England)
