Church Tower Lists Toward Tipping Point, If Not a Title

BAD FRANKENHAUSEN, Germany -- Compared with this town's 625-year-old crooked church, the Leaning Tower of Pisa is a model of rectitude.

Ever since it was built out of stone in 1382, the Church of Our Beloved Ladies by the Mountain in Bad Frankenhausen has been listing gradually to the east. Undermined by a porous geological foundation, the 184-foot-tall church tower has been falling over, sometimes as much as an inch or two a year. Townspeople have been accustomed to its lopsided shadow for centuries and, until recently, the church attracted little outside attention.

Two years ago, however, someone got out a measuring tape. Over time, villagers discovered, the tip of the spire had toppled more than 14 feet from where it was supposed to be, outleaning Pisa's more famous tower by about six inches.

A wave of civic pride quickly swept over Bad Frankenhausen, pop. 9,000. Burghers have been walking around with their chests puffed out since.

Henry Hunger, the deputy mayor, said locals are used to the sight of visitors gawking at the tower, their heads askew as if they can't believe what they're seeing.

"You go up to them and explain, 'No, no, it really is crooked,' " he said. "It's the image of the city. It's always been there, and it's always been crooked. Plus, it just dominates the skyline."

The tower is perched on a hillside on the edge of town and looks like it could keel over in a stiff breeze. Locals insist the structure is sturdy and say no one has abandoned the row of tidy homes sitting about 75 feet from the tower's base. At least not yet.

Engineers have noticed that the speed with which the tower is falling has picked up recently, with the spire now moving 2.4 inches a year. At that rate, it could reach a tipping point in the next decade or so, though nobody knows for sure.

As a result, local and state government officials have agreed to spend $1.5 million to try to stabilize the tower. Contractors started work over the summer and have wrapped the tower with temporary anchors and cables.

"We're going in very small steps and we're being very, very careful," said Juergen Ahlers, site manager for the contractor overseeing the project. "Essentially, we're going to grab it, lift it and push it back a bit."

The ground under the church is riddled with deep cracks and fissures. Engineers decided the only way to save the leaning tower would be to reinstall it on a flexible base. Plans are to straighten it slightly -- about two feet -- and see what happens.

Ahlers said he expects the tower to keep falling a couple of inches each year, even after the repair job. He predicted that it will have to be yanked back every 10 years or so. "We'll never be able to completely stop the tilt," he said.