In the marshy lands of East Frisia, Germany, stands a medieval church tower that makes Italy's famous Leaning Tower of Pisa look positively straight. The Leaning Tower of Suurhusen, a late medieval steeple completed in 1450, has earned its place in the Guinness World Records as the world's most unintentionally tilted tower.
"The tower leans at an angle of 5.19° (5° 11′), compared with 3.97° (3° 58′) for the Pisa tower after its stabilisation," according to official measurements. That's a whopping 1.22 degrees more than its more famous Italian cousin.
But what caused this architectural oddity? The answer lies beneath the surface. According to local historian Tjabbo van Lessen, medieval builders constructed the church on oak tree trunk foundations in marshy terrain. These foundations remained perfectly preserved for centuries, thanks to the surrounding groundwater. However, when 19th-century engineers drained the marshland, they inadvertently set the stage for an architectural drama: the oak foundations began to rot, causing the tower to tilt dramatically.
The lean became so concerning that in 1975, officials closed the tower to the public. It took a decade of stabilization work before visitors could once again climb the tilting structure, which stands 27.37 meters (89.8 feet) tall and weighs a 2,116 tons.
Previously:
• Once again, the Millennium Tower is sinking and tilting faster than before
• The cube houses of the Netherlands
