Bologna closes Garisenda Tower and cordons off area after abnormal oscillations

The Falling Tower from the "Divine Comedy" Is Under Threat of Collapse.

The authorities of Bologna have closed access to the famous leaning tower of Garisenda and cordoned off the area around it, since the instruments monitoring the tower's condition have recorded anomalous oscillations.

The Garisenda is the smaller of the two falling towers of Bologna; after it had to be shortened, the tower stands 48 metres high. Its deviation from the vertical at the top is 2 metres.

Dante mentions the Garisenda in Canto XXXI of the "Inferno":

Virgil, feeling himself within their embrace,
Said: "Stand here," and, so that my fear should vanish,
Wound his arm around me, more secure than armour.

As the Garisenda, if one stands beneath its overhang,
Seems to bend its summit little by little
Towards a cloud in the heights of heaven,

So above me, gazing through my alarm,
Antaeus loomed, and in that moment I knew
That I myself would not have chosen this road.

Literal translation