The Leaning Tower of Pisa is really big and impressive, and one of the seven wonders of the world. We spent the day visiting the museums in Pisa, which are all clustered around the leaning tower and church, so all day we kept being shocked by the sight of that massive edifice on the verge of tipping over. The tower was built as a bell tower for the massive church next door, about 800 years ago. Before it was finished it started to lean, so the top half was built crooked to correct for the lean. The leaning got worse every century until 2001, when it was corrected a half of a degree by drilling.
 |
| Jeff Doing his Best to Stop the Leaning (The photo every tourist has to take.) |
 |
| View of the Baptistry and Cathedral from the Leaning Tower |
Today we started with a visit to the Cathedral of Pisa. It is massive and ornate inside beyond description. We noticed no reliquaries, unless you count the entire corpse of Saint Ranieri, which has been preserved since 1161 and is on display in a glass case.
 |
| Saint Ranieri's Corpse |
Then we climbed the 294 stairs to the top of the leaning bell tower. Climbing the circular staircase of a tilting building is an experience reminiscent of walking through a fun-house, with oddly tilting floors. From the top we could look down on the other buildings.
Next we toured the Sinopie museum which discussed restoration of old stuff.
Next we toured the Baptistry, a large, one-room, domed building with an interesting tourist plaque discussing the ancient practice of baptism by immersion. An official demonstrated the unique acoustics of the building by singing tones. As he held a note the volume would gradually increase. Then he would change notes and the first note would slowly fade away for about 10 seconds. It sounded like he was singing multiple notes because of the long echoes of the dome. A fascinating effect.
The Cemetery was surprisingly interesting with a huge expanse of important people's tombs (such as Fibonicci) and sarcophagi. It also featured the Chapel of the Holy Relics, with 2 large glass cases full of reliquaries. We counted 80 total relic holders, some with skulls and some with large quantities of bones and vertebrae visible through the glass.
 |
| The Courtyard in the Cemetery (The Tombs are All in Concrete) |
 |
| Reliquaries in the Chaple of the Holy Relics |
 |
| Bones of a Saint |
Lastly we toured the Duomo museum. It displayed many old items, including about a dozen huge hymnals. They would be really handy if your eyesight was really, really bad.
 |
| Yes, the Hymnal Really is That Big |
No comments:
Post a Comment