Leaning Tower of Pisa: Date of Construction by Prof. Piero Pierotti   9th of August 1173 "Anno Domini MCLXXIIII campanile hoc fuit fundatum mense Augusti" Two inscriptions, one in the State Archive and the other in this capital, define the year, the indiction and the day of the foundation. A passage from Annales of Bernardo Magone, a contemporary chronicler, adds that the Bell Tower is "rotondus" and that "sequenti anno factus fuit gradus unus o imus in circuitu". The "primarium lapidem" of the Belltower, was celebrated the 9th of August 1173, the day before Saint Lawrence. The date, carved in marble, high at the right of the entrance, under a series of symbolic animals - a bull, a basilisk, and a bear. Description provided by Professor Piero Pierotti Professor of Medieval Architecture at the University of Pisa http://humanities.cisiau.unipi.it/~pierotti/Torre/data-en.html Return to Leaning Tower of Pisa Page Return to Leaning Tower of Pisa Information Page This Page Maintained by: Gary Feuerstein