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1000places > PISA - Architecturally, the cathedral is considered to be unsurpassed in its combination of dark-grey marble and white stone. But what struck Jeanne's eye was that sometime during its restoration, its builders were obviously somewhat lax in their placement of fallen stone blocks.
1000places > PISA - At certain angles, the tower's lean seems even more pronounced.
1000places > PISA - The cathedral at Pisa was built after the decline of the Roman Empire, but a close examination of some of its reconstructed marble blocks shows that the builders evidently had not forgotten their past.
1000places > PISA - Many of Pisa's 6 million annual visitors are surprised to find that the Leaning Tower is but one of an ensemble of architectural gems that encircle the Campo dei Miracoli, or Field of Miracles. Actually the tower was originally intended to serve as the campanile – or bell tower – for the more dominant Duomo, the cathedral. Begun in 1064 and completed a century later, the cathedral was financed largely by the windfall from six large ships loaded with gold booty that fell into the hands of Pisa troops after a battle with Mediterranean pirates.
1000places > PISA - Almost ignored by many of the tourists visiting the "Field of Miracles" is the Baptistry of St. John, begun in the year 1153 and completed in 1363. Constructed on the same unstable sand as the Tower, it too leans -- 0.6 degrees toward the cathedral.
1000places > PISA - I had vowed prior to the trip that I would NOT succumb to one of the most-cliched photos of all time -- but there we were and the temptation was simply too great.
1000places > PISA - One of the sculptures that stands next to the Leaning Tower.
1000places > PISA - We really had not expected to see such a dramatic tilt to the tower, but there it was -- a good 15-feet, they say, off plumb. But what surprised us even more was the fact that you could see a distinctive banana-shape in the upper stories - the result of efforts in the 13th century to compensate for the lean by building one side of the upper floors taller than the other.
1000places > PISA - The next morning it was on to Pisa. A traveler in the early 1800s wrote "The object which attracts the eye upon entering Pisa is that wonder of the world, the leaning tower, by far the most curious and interesting of the famous towers of Italy." Now, nearly two centuries later, despite dire predictions and near-calamitous "preservation" efforts, the Leaning Tower still stands, still leans, and still draws millions of visitors.
PISA - Architecturally, the cathedral is considered to be unsurpassed in its combination of dark-grey marble and white stone. But what struck Jeanne's eye was that sometime during its restoration, its builders were obviously somewhat lax in their placement of fallen stone blocks.

1000places > PISA - Architecturally, the cathedral is considered to be unsurpassed in its combination of dark-grey marble and white stone. But what struck Jeanne's eye was that sometime during its restoration, its builders were obviously somewhat lax in their placement of fallen stone blocks.
PISA - Architecturally, the cathedral is considered to be unsurpassed in its combination of dark-grey marble and white stone. But what struck Jeanne's eye was that sometime during its restoration, its builders were obviously somewhat lax in their placement of fallen stone blocks.

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