Destinations / The Most Famous Towers in the World / The Towers of San Gimignano, Italy
The Towers of San Gimignano, Italy
San Gimignano is a town in the province of Siena region of Tuscany. The fortified city is situated on a hill in central Italy, south-west of Florence. The city has a population of about 7000 people. The historic city center is surrounded by a fortress wall. The maximum width of the city inside the walls is of 500 meters. However, in the past the city was divided into four regions: San Giovanni, Piazza, Castello and San Mateo, whose representatives compete during the harvest festival Ferie delle Messi. The city bus station, where the coaches arrive, is at the southern gate of the fortress wall ( San Giovanni).
San - Gimignano, famous for its medieval towers, is located on a hill about 334 m above the sea level, dominating Val d'Elsa. The city, built on the site of Etruscan settlements began to develop around the tenth century. The city took its name from the Holy Bishop of Modena in the sixth century, which saved the town from the barbarian hordes, commanding Totiloy. In the Middle Age, the city has achieved remarkable growth through the Francigena street, which crossed the city. San - Gimignano in the thirteenth century, reached its peak and has been enriched by valuable works of art that adorned many temples, palaces and monasteries. The economic stability of the city has favored the aristocratic class, who showed their political power through the construction of the famous 72 towers in the fourteenth century, today only 14 remained. A terrible plague in 1348 and the decline of the population, caused a serious blow to the economy of the city, followed by a deep crisis, which led to the decision of the rulers to submit to Florence. In the following centuries San Gimignano was a significant decline and decay. The beauty of the city, its architectural and artistic treasures, however, dramatically in the recent years have revived the fate of economy and culture of the city. In 1990 San Gimignano entered the list of the Cultural World and Natural Assets by UNESCO. San - Gimignano is surrounded by the natural environment of rare beauty, which is characterized by alternating vineyards and olive groves typical of the Tuscan landscape. The main production of this land is the excellent wines which are produced from the Middle Ages.
The glory od San Gimignano
Towers are the pride and the glory of San Gimignano. This historical miracle make the dream of Guelphs and Ghibellines, of Dante come true. In the XIV century they built a tiny urban republic, building a local noble family. They still keep the old names, even now, one of them is called the Salvuchchi tower, and another - on behalf of the implacable enemies of the family, the Ardingelli tower. The same towers were once the Florence and Siena. There's time and the new needs of their life were destroyed. They kept only this small town which is the little blessing and the temptation of culture. These useless and bizarre constructions had been preserved like their best property. "
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Since ancient times, this is an unspoken competition among architects to be the builder of the tallest building, of the longest bridge, of the most original house, of the most beautiful churches, etc.
Telling the truth, the architects began to receive recognition for their work only in recent times (since the era of modern times.
) Prior to that, until the time of the late Middle Ages, all the laurels battered rulers, barons, knights and other nobles, many of whom did not know what the project construction is.
There are several categories of buildings, which, thanks to their impressive size are among the most famous man-made objects.
These categories include the pyramids, bridges, towers and skyscrapers.
A tower is a high engineering construction.
The main differences from the other towers, tall buildings are the lack of braces (console design, fixed only at the bottom)and extremely low internal volume, and sometimes the entire volume of the tower is occupied by only one staircase.
As an engineering construction, the tower belongs to the antenna-mast structures.
The most commonly towers use antennas and feeder equipment for their location.
For example, mobile operators are placed on towers and relay panel antenna.
If the height of the antenna-mast structures (AMC), is more than 45 feet , it requires an electricity system.
This requirement REGA to ensure safety.
The creators of the Eiffel Tower gave the go-ahead starting the present stage of the competition for the title of " the biggest skyscraper or tower of the world.
" Built in 1889 it became the tallest (312m) building in the world.
Prior to its two thousand years the palm kept Pyramid of Giza (147m).
After the Eiffel Tower became the champions of the growth series: the Empire State Building (381m) in New York, Chicago Sears Tower (442m), Malaysia's Petronas Towers (452m), Taiwan's Taipei 101 (508m).
The latter was built in 2004 and held the title of the world's tallest skyscraper until 21 July 2007, when the line was broken by the cherished tower Burj Dubai in United Arab Emirates.
It rose to a height of 512 meters.
The construction of the tower is not yet complete, its completion is scheduled for late 2008.
According to the statements of architects, its height will reach a record high indeed - 808 meters.
The cost of the construction of the tower is estimated at one billion dollars and has lasted for almost four years.
The average rate of the construction of one floor lasted three days.
The tower and the adjacent buildings occupied a land of 200 hectares (it cost the owners of the building 20 billion dollars).
The tower will be equipped with 56 elevators (incidentally, the fastest in the world), boutiques, swimming pools, apartments class "luxury" hotels, and observation sites .
A distinctive feature is the construction of the international working teams: South Korean firm contractor, American architects, Indian builders.
Four thousand people had been involved in the construction.
The building of the tower was created in the shape of a trefoil - a symbol of life in the desert.
Its spire will be visible at a distance of sixty miles.
The Burj Dubai Tower will be the center of a large architectural complex.
Among the buildings of the huge complex (12ha), there will be an artificial lake, 30 thousand homes, a large park area, nine hotels.
Since ancient times, people seek height.
The evidence of this fact can be found everywhere - from the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the modern skyscrapers.
The legend of the Tower of Babel explains this tendency as theomachism - people wanted to reach heaven and defeat the gods.
Then they did not succeed, God sent the exuberant wind, tossing the tower, and mixed in a sentence all human languages.
But people have stubbornly continued to build high-rise structures - whether we wanted to prove his power, or trying to get closer to God, or seeking other worlds .
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But as a person - just a man, and him, as did the ancient Romans, to err, it sometimes happened that tall buildings do not want to look up and just started to lean down to its creators.
So, many towers fell .
The reasons for the fall of the towers is the most different, many of them are connected with the peculiarities of the soil or with errors in the design and construction.
But, of course, each tower has an explanation of this feature.
A good tower is usually not one but several legends associated with its slope.
And certainly the leaning tower is a local (and sometimes known in the whole world) landmark.
If the tower identified its status, it is immediately placed in local guidebooks, and even brings considerable income.
We will cover the most famous bowing towers, each remarkable in its own way.
The most famous of falling towers are one of the oldest.
The tower is a bell tower and is part of the architectural ensemble, which also includes the cathedral, baptistery and cemetery.
All this is built of white marble and it simply shines in sunny weather .
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