LETTER FROM ROME
Last fall, the Torre della Garisenda, a symbol of Bologna, sounded the alarm: It was in danger of collapsing. "Safety conditions are no longer guaranteed, and the tower is in peril," said architect Amedeo Bellini in La Repubblica. The sensors monitoring the tower had detected worrying movements. With its five degrees of inclination, the Garisenda – as the Bolognese affectionately call it – is leaning even further than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. But while the famous Tuscan campanile attracts 5 million tourists a year, the Bolognese tower has enjoyed relative anonymity until now. The prospect of its eventual demise has given it new notoriety.
Planted in the historic heart of Bologna, the 47-meter-high Garisenda is as inseparable from the history of the capital of Emilia-Romagna as it is from its urban landscape. Built in the early 12th century for the wealthy Garisendi family, it was evoked by the poet Dante in one of the songs of his Divine Comedy. Like its neighbor, the 97-meter-high Torre degli Asinelli – the highest medieval tower in the world – the tower is everywhere.
In the 1951 municipal elections, the Communist Party presented its first "two-tower" list. Giuseppe Dozza, the city's PCI mayor from 1945 to 1966, called it "the most Bolognese symbol of all." In the 1950s, Garisenda even became the name of a famous stock cube, "widely used in typical Bolognese cooking, and saving time and fat," boasted an advertisement at the time. Today, the characteristic silhouette of the two towers can be found on souvenir items like T-shirts, mugs and magnets.
Today, Bologna is shaking: What if the monument collapsed? Unlike Pisa, the medieval tower dominates a thick urban fabric of palaces, arcades and churches. Everything has been considered to save the monument, starting with shortening it by 6 meters to reduce pressure on the movements. Faced with the risk of collapse, the tower had already been shortened by a dozen meters in the 14th century. "The tower has always leaned to the east, but in the spring of 2023, sensors revealed that it was also sagging to the southwest," said Raffaella Bruni, who is piloting the restoration project. Bologna town council has closed off access to the square in front of the two towers and installed containers to cushion any falling debris.
Often referred to as Bologna's Tower of Pisa, the Garisenda is now more than ever linked to the destiny of the famous leaning Tuscan tower. The city in the Emilia Romagna region has turned to the Pisa site to save its heritage. At a press conference on March 27, the city's mayor, Matteo Lepore, announced that the Garisenda would be saved thanks to the pylons designed to stabilize the Tower of Pisa in the early 2000s, a first in Italy.
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