Leaning Tower of Pisa:
The Stairs
by Prof. Piero Pierotti
This helicoidal stairs of 293 steps, raises from the ground floor to the
terrace of the seventh colonnade, large and practical to climb, it had
a specific purpose, since the tower was imagined not only to be seen
but also to be climbed and seen from the top.
The large square where the bell-tower was being constructed, was
used once a year to host some sort of Mediterranean exhibition fair
where one could find goods and merchants from all regions. On the
eve of Assunta (14 august) occured the procession of waxes which
passes also through via Santa Mari.
The bell-tower was the ideal place to observe from above the whole
movement in the square and the street. The crowd was not just any
public, but they were guests of a certain importance, strangers that
came, to a large extent, from the east. They could not be made to
climb staircases of wood, instead they had to be accompanied by
a person, talking to them or holding a light, maybe this is how the
idea of the stairs came to be.
Description provided by Professor Piero Pierotti
Member of the Commission for the Restoration of the Tower
and Professor of Medieval Architecture at the University of Pisa
http://www.cisiau.unipi.it/~pierotti/Torre/scala-en.html
Personal e-mail to:
gary@endex.com
