The story of the collapse of the bell tower of San Marco
The bell tower collapsed in July 14th, 1902 . The inevitable collapse of the tower ,because of his old age was the main news at those days ,but the careful analysis revealed other causes. The reason for the collapse was not the foundation , a palisade in the form of a star that held large weight but the men’s intervention .
The old walls of the tower were weakened ,even if it seems strange,by lightning and earthquakes , over the humidity .
The base of the bell tower was surrounded by 17 shops that were demolished (1873),to build the “loggia of the academics “( Sansovino ) meeting place of the scholars of the Republic.
After the collapse the regional office for the conservation of monuments in the Venice area comes to a frightening conclusion :
The company contracted with maintenance of the ” loggia” built near the bell tower wall 
with the roof glued to the wall with a sloping frame ; for change the lead roof , has removd this frame . They did so a horizontal cut in the wall that penetrated deep by two-thirds thickness , weakening the wall built by Zendrini . Then another bad luck adds ; during the work a large amount of debris falls towards the base of the tower , leaving a big empty space between the two walls . Shortly after, the outer wall will move out of vertical axis
. On the interior of the tower were observed strange cracks too.The collapse begins with the total failure of the outer wall ,then the intern one. That is no doubt due to the cut made in the wall.
The political regime of the time tried to hide the real reasons of the collapse blaming the oldness of the wall , and looking to blame the maintainers and the administrators of the bell tower ( Vendrasco , Saccardo ) , for negligence .
It was rebuilt and inaugurated ten years later ” how it was and where it was”.
inspired by ” Venice doc history of Venice .”
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