Italy's desperate effort to save Bologna's leaning towers | Focus on Europe
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- Опубліковано 30 бер 2024
- A medieval tower in northern Italy is on the verge of collapsing. Historians and construction experts are using all means at their disposal to try and save it.
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#Italy #Bologna #Towers
Bologna was like a sort of New York during middle ages: at least 20 tower surpass 45m of height and in some case were as tall as London's Elisabeth Tower. There were at least 174 total towers, making the city skyline a true incredible view for the time. There are some depiction of its former glory that were really impressive
It was a sort of combination of New York and Venice, as it was also full of canals for the production of silk. Some canals still remain visible today, whereas most of them run underground now.
Not only Bologna. A lot of italian cities. For example Pavia, Lucca and San Gimignano.
what happened to the towers?
@@luxraider5384 Most were either shortened and incorporated into adjacent buildings, or destroyed to make room for newer buildings/roads/squares.
Looked it up. Quite impressive although an entire city of leaning slim towers looks a bit concerning.
fun fact: the tower has been leaning more than the Leaning Tower of Pisa for decades now.
leaning more as in the angle or as in the time it was lasting?
@@JaneDoe.TEAMRED angle
Climbing the Asinelli tower (larger of the two) was breathtaking, sadly it seems as part of the safety measures it is now closed to the public. Just imagine that in the 12th and 13th century Bologna had about 180 of these towers!
who built these?
Wow!
@@rizkyadiyanto7922Rich families who wanted to protect themselves, and probably also a matter of prestige.
NOW that's good news!!!! I was here in order to mention the safety rules in that tower... I mean, the complete lack of safety measures!!! I "climbed" that tower last summer and I was so scared, on my way up and then down... I was furious!!!
As mad as New York. I would guess that once one family built one, it set off a chain of competition. Did the other 178 fall down? Or were they dismantled? Bologna must have been a dangerous place to live in. Did they invent the hard hat there?😂
italians sure love building their leaning towers
Too many people building towers who lacked a whole lot of knowledge on how to properly build towers.
Everything leans and sags and droops after 900 years lol 👴🏻👵🏻💀
@@ozrob76 My guy, age has nothing to do with it. Every single one of these structures began leaning before they even finished being constructed. They are the product of poor engineering.
@@TheDrexxus Like the specialist said in the video, indeed.
So sad about this. I was in bologna and climbed the bigger tower five years ago. This should be available to experience for future generations aswell. History is important.
Great city with delicious food, I hope it preserves its historic center
Food is insanely good in Bologna
We were heavily bombed during WW2, everything in bricks can be reconstructed. Bologna has some better treasures but are well hidden, like a painting from Raffaello or the great female painter Artemisia Gentileschi for free in churches just around the towers
The leaning tower of Pizza and the leaning tower of Bolognese
Silly very silly comment - - let me guess you didn't attend bologna university the oldest recognised in the world @@realDunalTrimp
@@rob5197 bet they teach you how to make the best baloney sandwiches and the best spaghetti Bolognese in the world 🤤
This does not sound like they had a plan... They just observe and hope, nobody will get hit when the tower collapses.
I don’t think they want to tbh, everyone just seems more upset its gonna fall than concerned about property damage. I can’t speak to the potential loss of life.
They're collecting data to _form_ a plan.
Is your attention span really so short?
@@dillis2188 If the tower collapses before the plan is finished, the data collection will no longer be helpfull 😬
@@marcneef795 so they should rush in without gathering the data needed to form a plan? Or they should come up with a plan without the data, which is surely impossible? I am curious what your solution is.
@@AndyAlert They already have some data, which shows, that the towers are leaning too much. You can start working based on that.
That’s the exact tower that you climb on assassin’s creed.
I knew I visited this tower somewhere!
Bologna is not in Assassin's creed, is it?
Same style tower, but you're thinking of San Gimignano, not Bologna.
There's nothing like Italy...unique, amazing, things to see you see nowhere else on earth
Saying that we have older round towers in ireland.
@@McCabesMemorialsBut you don’t have calabrese mafia
@@McCabesMemorials We have older towers than this in Italy as well and btw it is far taller than those in Ireland.
eh, Spain was better, better food, cool architecture and there were far fewer Italians, all around much better
@@serebii666brotha, spain is a wasteland of cheap tourism. It’s the madmax land of europe together with greece. We’re poor and dry
Bologna is so beautiful! I stayed for several months last year. I loved the towers, it created such a unique atmosphere in the city centre.
Italy owns 2/3 of the worldwide heritage..... This is unique ! Forza Italia !!
Hugs from your neighbor from the french riviera.... Nizza !
53/933 =0.05.. far from 2/3 (but still it is #1)
@@Blu-111 italy could have at least two hundred more unesco heritage sites. Most other countries have one single site of interest, in italy the unesco site is the whole city, like florence, naples, pienza, siena, urbino, etc...
Thanks mon ami! Even France is second to none for culture, beauty, history and for what it gave to science, art , philosopy to humankind!
@@jacques.cousteau why was my correction perceived as offensive ? Ofc Italy is the most beautiful country in Europe but it is quite unrealistic to say that it could have other "200" sites as the list is always updated subject to a committee not YT users. Further, there are 99 countries with at least 2 sites and as of for the cities yes unesco site is awarded to entire old towns and that holds for many countries in different continents.
@@alessandrom7181 yes France is very beautiful country but the contribution to science, art and philosophy were because of individual achievements. Also, it has a dark side of colonialism and looting the resources of an entire continent that is still ongoing..
So if I understood correctly, is it the shorter tower to be at risk to falling ? Not the taller one ?
True, the taller one is not leaning, although the shorter tower is leaning toward the taller one and in the very busy city center! Everyday I pass by, I take a look at it, frightening.
A lot of towers collapsed catastrophically in Italy. 2 famous case in XX century are Venice and Pavia.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to disassemble the tower and rebuild it on stronger foundations and with hidden modern structures? 20 million just to maybe protect it seems such a vast sum...
prob not
Doubt it, anytime you have heritage stuff you bloat costs 8-10x what would be regular cost, and with it being such a "important" building they would require every single brick/stone or even nail be treated like a Disney princess on disassembly and reassembly you would absolutely balloon costs into space, and any contractor/construction firm willing to touch heritage/historical structures automatically charge u 5-6x labor costs over standard at least.
@@TheTemplarnight And if an earthquake topples down the entire structure?
@@kagura7107 then it's on the ground destroyed, kinda how that works
You guys see what I mean? haha
I've been to Pisa and it's famous Tower is in great shape!
Italian builders hitting the grapa hard with their morning coffee before work.
They didn't show properly the Asinelli tower.. They didn't even say that Bologna was a medieval Manhattan with more than 300 towers like this!!! They really didn't portray the place and the history seriously. This is quite superficial. Starting from the click-bait title "desperate effort". As it shows, it's super monitored.. and it will bring even more turists and money because more and more people will discover this beautiful city..
True, but people that don't live on fluff will take the time to delve deeper into the subject.
Yeah, I get it that they could have provided more history information, but having been there myself this documentary was perfect seeing the work that is currently going on. You can find dozens of documentaries on the history of Bologna on UA-cam.
Totally agree. It's not desperate, it's calculated and well planned.
This a a 4 minute video that deals with contemporary news. Do you really expect deep dives within that span?
I can easily see your point of view, and there is very fine history and culture that should be preserved and saved everywhere on earth.
But to what extent and at what price? There is no point if we are not here in 500-1000 years to experience it/them.
I am by no means an "eco hippie".
It hurts me that future generations will not be allowed to experience a roar from a v8 or a scream from a turbocharger.
As with humanity and the earth on which we live, everything is dynamic and in more or less constant change. We should probably not be so conservative all the time, but think a little outside the box.
Those towers, if they were built on a foundation of expertise and professionalism, they would probably still be there in 500+ years. :P
If not, then like so much other old C*** it must give way to something new. The capitalists want us to buy and build new things anyway. ;)
Peace out :)
Interesting. I climbed to the top of the taller tower in 1999.
Climbed it, or took the stairs?
Little known fact: If you stand on top of either of these towers and press "down" on your controller, you'll get transported to the Mushroom Kingdom.
😂🤣
Meanwhile Bologna still hasn't got its bucket back
and never will 💛💙
oversimplified reference?
Dear god...
there’s more
@@jackthehacker05 no...
Honestly, when you get to be 900 years old you’re lucky if your baloney tower even stands.
0:06 same.
la torre tiene 900 años. imagínense. si no hubiesen estado protegidas y constantemente restauradas hace mucho hubiesen caído
I am from Bologna and the fact that the Garisenda has structural problems is not new, and even when I still live there talks about its structure were being held and pedestrianised the city centre in 2012 during weekends, and they still do it.
Fun fact is that there were other smaller buildings near it that were demolished in the 20th century and such demolitions also affected it. Before the 1900s, there used to be a total of five towers in the area of Garisenda and Asinelli Towers, but three of them were demolished to open way into neighbouring Via Castiglione and Strada Maggiore to make way for the tramway
There were around 100 towers at some point.
@@peshi0 true but many of them did not even survive until the 1900s. In the late 1800s and early 1900s they approved a horrendous urbanistic project that destroyed the almost entirety of the city walls and part of pur heritage
@@enricomonti156same for Firenze, unfortunately. All to make way for the temporary capital
I figured they would use the Leaning Tower of Pisa fix in which many small drills went under the high side and removed material from under that side of the foundations.
In Pisa it was kind of easier, because the surrounding area is void, so it was accessible to drill. In Bologna, there are buildings all around.
the problem of this tower is different because here the foundation itself is in bad condition, the foundation is made with an inner concrete core surrounded by stone, but the concrete they used was not of very good quality and also there are void in it.
The foundation reached its maximum load bering capacity without margi.
The metal bar arround the foundation is because it was expanding outwards due to compression.
Towers have to be saved for future generations.
Imagine how architects of the past competing for the highest tower. It is like who's penis is longer 👍
That shaky cam footage of the inside makes it look like the structure is wobbling as they move through it. I wonder if this was done intentionally.
It’s like the lady who tried to repair the paintings of Jesus. Some people just don’t know what to do next so they “keep an eye on it.”
OK, but what are they DOING about it? Waiting until it collapses?
Yea. That’s pretty much all anyone can do. It’s built on mud unfortunately
@@phillipvelednitskiy6881they could take it down brick by brick and rebuild it before it turns into rubble
@@julm7744 So you are using a monetary rationale from the 20-21 century to describe the reasons why a 900-year old tower was built in the first place?
@@julm7744 Well, what do you suggest...just let it fall? You know, despite not being of 'any economy interest', at least according to you, it still holds pretty much a lot of historical importance to that place and is part of the "Bologna's Zeitgeist". Even though I understand it could be spent somewhere else, it is not that simple as you put it.
@@julm7744 oh actually tourism pays much. We will use that money.
Interesting
I was surprised the video only focused on reinforcing the structure of the tower, and not a solution to the lean as it was done in Pisa.
These kinds of ancient structures are wut make italy to be italy. They could try to preserve them with some type of external support atleast
Leaning tower of bologna
Another leaning tower?
I live in Bologna two years and missed my chance to climb the towers. I was told it was bad luck (for the students to climb it before graduating)
This is A SIMPLE fix but they're screwing around. My brother-in-law specialised in saving buildings from demolition. You put beams under supported by big bases on surrounding ground, jack the building up, dig out the old foundations, pour new high density concrete foundations and set the building back down on the new foundations. It's been done HUNDREDS of times before, maybe over 1000 times.
they gotta take that thing down that is scary.
they did a bunch of work to stop pisa from leaning so much(and continuing to get worse) surely they could do something similar here there is a whole documentary about the work they did under its base
If I understood this video correctly the problem here is that the base of the tower is too weak and is slowly failing. This is a rather different problem than in Pisa, where the tower is sound but built on too weak foundations.
The restoration will be worth it, many tourists come to Bologna for the tower
I climbed the highest tower back in 2014
I’m going next week can’t wait to see this!
Enjoy 😊 And enjoy the food ❤
@@Pippie5555yes, be sure to have a bologna sandwich.
I blame Ezio Auditore constantly jumping from the top for causing the leaning 😂
Ezio never visited Bologna.
This looks like will end up like the leaning tower of Pisa: removing some earth from bellow so its angle is diminished, which in turns sinks the tower a bit on the ground.
“Builds ridiculously structurally compromised tower”
The weights are working to bring it back from falling. I think they forgot that bit... The "leaning to the east" was meant to be "it was increasing its fall to the east but since the weights have been in place, its been coming back up "
how do the double container walls protect anything? it's like if i was about to fall over and someone put a bunch of six packs of soda around me, wouldn't i just fall over them and hurt my shins in the process? (and my neighbors are two feet away from from me so they'll still get hit)
I still really don't know what the problem is. Felt like this was a fairly unclear news piece.
still makes me sad thinking about what they did to the Tower of Zaragoza
The towers have to be saved at any cost, whether it's 20 million Euros or not, apparently the best way is to brace the
groundworks, re-inforce the side or corner where it is sinking, they can brace the whole corner - all the way to the top,
with steel L-SHAPE BRACE, even brace all four corners, tied together every so often, with the ground "braced" and the
tower also "braced" - Worst Case Scenario, build a "viewing spire" very close to the tower, made entirely of steel and
concrete, then brace the tower to the newly built viewing spire, with a cable-system, the tower living another 900 years.
"at any cost" That is a bold statement given these towers may not be able to be saved. If the ground itself is not suitable then building more around it may not change anything and the structure itself may be degrading beyond what can be salvaged.
I am not saying to throw in the towel but we need to be realistic, look at all the costs and ask exactly who is supposed to pay for them.
So why not remove soil from underneath as they did with the one in Pisa ?
Never knew they had a bolognese tower, thought it was only the pizza tower.
0:06 that makes two of us
With 10 people and 1 year. You can block by block dismantle it and rebuild it with the same materials as new. Not even close to 20M euros for some light repairs.
How many leaning towers does your country need before people start to think "maybe these guys actually just suck at building"
I would be terrified to live near these near-collapse monsters.
Man they just cant let go of anything
well, another tourist spot destination
Newest Bologna tourist attraction on the way😂😂😢😢
There's Bologna in my fridge and it's great with mustard...
GPS sensors with a precision circa 5m?
Probably differential GPS, with a separate fixed station close by.
No worries, just don't lean on them.
I'm sure I read somewhere that engineers had managed to reduce the lean on the Leaning Tower of Pizza because it was in danger of collapse. Is it possible to use the same technique in Bologna?
It would be a pity if that lovely old tower were to finally tip over.
That has been repeatedly suggested and addressed in other comments. Also, it's Pisa, not Pizza.
Any groundwater changes having an effect?
Or maybe city council hopes it will fall, one less project the city cannot afford.
i thought they had the best brick layers in italy
We accept any help
0:06 *KISS MY AIRS*
Towering threats loom
Looks like they built it on suspicious gravel
fun fact, those containers say 'beans'
0:06 i mean, same.
The Italians were never good at building tall structures
Iv worked for some, I'm guessing they do it as cheap as possible with spare parts.
I thought Pisa was the Italian town with teetering issues....
Italian architecture is unrivaled
That tower is literally about to collapse ....
They look like my day 2 cobblestone towers in minecraft.
They build on peat moss?
900 years? Yeah right. Italy has a thing for tall buildings that lean dangerously.
"100 years after construction had started" were they still adding to it then?
Italians.
They did that to the Tower of Pisa also. Even if you straightened the Pisa it would still be crooked because they continued to build it straight even when the base was leaning, and the more it leaned they still kept adding more that was straight so a couple of sections were build straight on a leaning base. Historical buildings often take a long time to build. La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is still not complete but was started in the 1880s.....Canterbury Cathedral was started in like 500AD or something and rebuilt a couple of times and remodeled several times since then. They were not as wasteful then as we are now.
@@hugolafhugolafThe Cathedral in Cologne took 700 years to be built 😊
The technology exists and has been utilized to change the leaning (to a safe point) of the Pisa tower. They left it leaning for historical consistency. In the case of the Bologna towers, the angle could be totally reverted without affecting the overall impact of the city.
Wrong.
@@Katchi_ Xplain
@@tizianofangazio7447 The foundation is blowing apart. All that cable is what is keeping it from doing that. Not a soil problem like Pisa
What is it with Italy and leaning towers? Is there any actual significance to this or just random co-incidence that that they have multiple towers leaning.
"the tower is leaning toward the east, and also toward the north-west too"
how is a tower leaning in opposite directions at the same time?
Italy seems to have a trend for leaning towers. Tower of Pisa, & now this tower. Don't know of any other country with leaning towers.
"Theyve always been anything but straight.". honestly same and i live there
Nobody respects a liar.
This issue would result in the city needing to dig underneath the building and put massive pylons below the building to help keep the building flat. How do you do this? Well if you can, lift the building. Not easy, but can be done. The building sits on clay and other types of soil. This soil is soft which you need to try and harden and stabilize. This is where the pylons come in. Now the issue? Is it historically worth it? Especially since there's not much about this building?
I do not trust Italian engineers, nor do I trust the corrupt state. The UN must send a team of engineers to fix this.
Fun fact: FAGIOLI written on those red containers means BEANS 🫘
My Bologna has a first name , it’s T O W E R
Leaning towers of Bologna
Tilted towers
Sooooo, are they looking at the soil underneath the tower? I mean everyone knows you need a stable foundation to build upon if you want something to last. I live in a concrete slab foundation cause we are on hard clay so no need for anchors.
It's a 900 years old building.
It lasted enough. But we care about it last till it's first millennium.
What a great idea! I guess these professionals have not already thought about that!
The problem Is in the base of the tower which is made of chalk and Is starting to fall apart After centuries of infiltations, then the way the walls are structured too
@@Bl-ug8ek it could be possible to pull it from inside using wires connected to the base, distributing the wires in order to not pressure too much the weak walls.
But at some point it will fall down too.
Maybe we could just build up an external structure to keep it in place the whole tower while we secure the basement in a similar way like we did for Pisa tower.
Slow, millimetric pushes of the whole structure could put the tower in place and grant it time until we develop some new tech to fix this problem for good.
I mean, Pisa tower after it's maintenance have an expectation of life of about 300 years.
If we can obtain even the half of the time, that would definitely work.
What really worry me is the chance of an earthquake. That will just destroy the tower and make it fall over the surrounding buildings... and houses.
That would be a disaster. And unfortunately Italy is a volcanic region with high geological activities.
I really hope that someone at the Minister of Cultural heritage is working over this problem right now. But probably they are already doing it. After all I don't count the number of historical monuments that we have already saved from disasters. Not to mention those destroyed and rebuilt like they was in past.
I live in Friuli, I'm too young and I wasn't born when it happened the earthquake of 76 but from the photos, everything here was destroyed. Everything.
And today instead it's all in its place. Even better than before.
So I have hope and trust in the institutions. They can definitely handle the situation.
@@danielefabbro822 Non mi aspettavo la risposta in inglese hahaha, sono di Bologna ..qualcosa ne so, mi piacerebbe visitare il Friuli un giorno anche se ricostruito. Comunque so che la vogliono smontare mattone mattone e non mettere i tiranti perché ha i muri costruiti a sacco e non pieni come la torre di Pisa. Saluti
Leaning Towers of Bologna.
Why does this happen only in Italy? Is it something to do with pasta? I find most Italian issues come down to pasta when you look into them.
Sometimes it's best to just let old things go. In this case you can't fight gravity. Common sense people.
Leaning towers and collapsing bridges. What is it with Italian engineers?
Would it be cheaper to just disassemble the tower, fix the foundation and reassemble after?
Troll 🤣🤣
The engineer is a queen tho.
so basically there is nothing they can do but to monitor its downfall, gotcha
Other architects: Pathetically designed buildings ...
Italians: Heritage😊
How much ignorance in one sentence
When rich people have too much money, they build towers
Shame on the original owner(s) and financier(s)! When you build something, you've to make sure to do it right from the beginning.
Italy is famous of leaning towers construction history.
Always reach for the higher tower , no matter what.
There is also the Tower of Babylon Biblical story.
Always excessive overweight top of the tower can be demolished.
It just an another imperfective building.
Ok, let's ignore the remaining 3000 Italian towers that have been standing for more than 1000 years, and focus on two towers that are ONLY 900 years old.
🤡🤡