Tilted Buildings Around The World, In Pictures
The Leaning
Tower of Pisa is probably the most famous tilted building in the world, but there are
plenty of other striking examples of structures that don’t stand up
straight, whether by design or by accident. Here’s a look at some
lesser-known lopsided lighthouses, temples, churches, and skyscrapers.
Built in 1933, the 26-metre (85-foot) Kiipsaare lighthouse stands off the
coast of the island of Saaremaa in Estonia. Strong storms and waves are
what first caused the structure to tilt, though wind and water have
gradually pushed it back into a more upright position.
With an incline of 5.19 degrees, the bell tower of the protestant church
in Suurhusen, Germany, holds the Guinness World Record for being the
farthest-leaning tower. By comparison, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is
inclined at an angle of just under 4 degrees.
One of the most prominent landmarks of the Abu Dhabi skyline, the
Capital Gate tower was designed to lean 18 degrees to the west and holds
the Guinness World Record for farthest-leaning man-made building.
Standing 160 metres (525 feet) tall, the skyscraper houses the Hyatt
Capital Gate Abu Dhabi luxury hotel.
In the first half of the 18th century, the Demidovs—a powerful
Russian family of industrialists—built this tower in the town of
Nevyansk, established as a centre for gold and iron processing in the
Ural mountains. The building originally held various offices and was
used as a prison during the Soviet era. According to local legend, the
tower’s lean was intentional, pointing toward the Demidovs’ home city
of Tula as a sign of respect for the family.
Perched on a hilltop in Suzhou, a city in the coastal Chinese
province of Jiangsu, the Yunyan pagoda is more than a thousand years
old, having been completed at the beginning of the Northern Song
Dynasty in 961. Resting half on a ledge and half on softer ground, it
began to lean sometime during the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644), but
archaeologists began efforts to stabilize it in 1957.
The two towers of Bologna, Torre Degli Asinelli and Torre Garisenda,
were built during the Middle Ages for military signalling and defence
purposes. Both have a noticeable lean, but the shorter tower,
Garisenda, is more steeply inclined due to the unstable ground beneath
it. The taller tower, Asinelli, is open to the public.
The twin leaning office towers known as Puerta de Europa I and II loom
over Paseo de la Castellana, a major north-south thoroughfare in Madrid.
Designed by the American architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and
completed in 1996, the buildings have a 15-degree tilt and are the
world’s first inclined skyscrapers, an innovative solution to the need
to clear enough space for the subway interchange at their base.
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