Italian Pisa will have a second leaning tower - of lights and shadows

Rome - The famous leaning tower in northern Italy’s Pisa is to get a competitor. Construction work on a new office building will begin on the outskirts of the city within a month, which, thanks to a play of light and shadow, will become an almost perfect imitation of the famous bell tower. This draws thousands of foreign tourists to Pisa every year.
    The structure, reported by today’s Corriere della Sera, will be 55.8 meters tall, the same height as the original leaning tower. The father of the "virtual leaning tower" is Italian architect Dante Oscar Benini, whose task is to create the illusion for viewers that the building is actually leaning, through a carefully thought-out lighting and shading system for the facade. To make the effect as believable as possible, the first two floors of the building will also have a slanted ramp.
    The project won't be completely free; it will cost 50 million euros, which is equivalent to about one and a half billion crowns. The plan also includes the construction of a terrace that will offer visitors a panoramic view of the distant historic tower. "In the future, Pisa will be virtually connected with the Pisa of the future," the architect assures.
    The construction of the original bell tower in the historic center of the city began in the 12th century, and although the tower started to lean due to unstable ground, construction continued until its full completion. However, the deviation from the vertical axis continued in the following centuries and now amounts to four and a half meters.