Medieval History
All six donkeys were impeccably behaved. They?d been ridden into Pisa?s main square, the Piazza dei Miracoli, last November by vexed vets from Pisa University and ceremoniously set down beneath its Leaning Tower. In protest at government cuts across Italian education, the profs duly gave an al fresco lecture on donkey anatomy to hundreds of bewildered tourists. Silvio Berlusconi?s photo appeared on many a banner, beside the words ?The biggest ass of all?.
Such a display of faculty dissent would have been impossible a decade ago, when the area of piazza around the tower was completely cordoned off. It looked then more building site than World Heritage site and the howls of protest from local Pisans were far louder than a few braying donkeys.
From 1990 to 2001, the tower remained closed ? many doubting it would ever reopen ? as the International Committee for the Safeguard of the Leaning Tower strove to save it from collapse. Visitors to Pisa dropped off by 45 per cent.
Click here to read the article from The Telegraph
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Medieval History
Solving the 800-year mystery of Pisa's Leaning Tower
All six donkeys were impeccably behaved. They?d been ridden into Pisa?s main square, the Piazza dei Miracoli, last November by vexed vets from Pisa University and ceremoniously set down beneath its Leaning Tower. In protest at government cuts across Italian education, the profs duly gave an al fresco lecture on donkey anatomy to hundreds of bewildered tourists. Silvio Berlusconi?s photo appeared on many a banner, beside the words ?The biggest ass of all?.
Such a display of faculty dissent would have been impossible a decade ago, when the area of piazza around the tower was completely cordoned off. It looked then more building site than World Heritage site and the howls of protest from local Pisans were far louder than a few braying donkeys.
From 1990 to 2001, the tower remained closed ? many doubting it would ever reopen ? as the International Committee for the Safeguard of the Leaning Tower strove to save it from collapse. Visitors to Pisa dropped off by 45 per cent.
Click here to read the article from The Telegraph
- The Palio Banishes Siena?s Woes ? For A Day
On high, in Siena town hall, the 14th-century fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti portrays the pestilent consequences of bad government ? and the ordered society which good government produces. There is no doubt about which is ahead. Down in the city, though,...
- Giotto Frescoes Could Suffer "irreversible Damage" From Development Plans
They are regarded as a supreme masterpiece of medieval Western art and are admired by thousands of visitors to the city of Padua each year. But frescoes by the Italian Renaissance painter, Giotto di Bondone, in the 14th century Scrovegni Chapel, are now...
- Fire Damages Medieval Church In England
Fire crews were called to St Mary at the Elms church in Ipswich town centre at 8.30am on Saturday. Flames were seen billowing from the tower, which is thought to date from Tudor times and includes the oldest working clock in Ipswich. Firefighters were...
- A Mighty Norman Tower
Fingest, Buckinghamshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum (Allan Barton).Fingest is a tiny village in the Chilterns in south Buckinghamshire. The village is dominated by the mighty Norman western tower of St Bartholomew's church. In fact the tower...
- Tower Transplant
Barnetby-le-Wold, Lincolnshire, originally uploaded by Vitrearum.The wonderfully texture church at Barnetby in Lincolnshire has this funny stubby little tower. Surely it's been truncated. Down the road Redbourne church in the same county has the...