Bologna's leaning tower to be stabilised by late 2028, mayor says

By Alvise Armellini

ROME (Reuters) - A leaning medieval tower in the centre of Bologna that was cordoned off due to the risk of its collapse is expected to be stabilised and restored by late 2028, the northern Italian city's mayor said on Tuesday.

Like the more famous Tower of Pisa, the 12th-century Garisenda tower has leaned for centuries, as the ground on which it was built gave way soon after its construction.

In October 2023, however, the area immediately surrounding the 48-metre structure, where the taller Asinelli tower (97 metres) is also located, was closed off.

Presenting repair plans, Mayor Matteo Lepore said the process of stabilising the tower would allow the area to be reopened in 2028: a more optimistic target date than the 10-year time frame he initially gave in 2023.

"It is a world-unique project, if anything, because ours is a world-unique tower," he said during a press conference, flanked by engineering experts.

The Garisenda is a much-loved landmark, mentioned in Dante Alighieri's "Divine Comedy" and "Le Rime", as well as in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Voyage to Italy" and Charles Dickens' "Pictures from Italy".

The tower is expected to be reinforced using machinery and expertise previously tested on the Tower of Pisa.

The project is expected to cost nearly 20 million euros ($22 million), Lepore said, with financing coming from local, regional and European Union funds, as well as private donations.

Under the plan presented on Tuesday, which still requires approval from Italian art heritage authorities, two plinths will be erected next to the tower, topped with metal pylons reaching to a height of about 20 metres.

Polyester bands attached to the pylons will wrap around the tower to gently counter its tendency to lean south and eastwards, the experts said, adding that the foundations will meanwhile be strengthened through injections.

The Garisenda and Asinelli towers bear the names of the influential medieval families that built them.

The Garisenda was originally about 60 metres tall, but it was lowered in the second half of the 14th century to improve its precarious stability.

($1 = 0.9003 euros)

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini; Editing by Joe Bavier)