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Stabilization work means that the leaning tower of Pisa is slightly sloped down before, experts said.
The tower, which leans to one side since its creation in 1173, has lost 4 cm of slope over the past two decades, according to a report from the monitoring group gathered every three months to take stock of the state monument .
"Since the start of the restoration work, the tower weighs about half a degree less," said Nunziante Squeglia, professor of geotechnics at the University of Pisa, who works with the group. "But what matters is the stability of the tower, which is better than originally planned."
The structure, badly damaged during the Second World War, was closed to the public in 1990 for security reasons and has not reopened before eleven years.
The monitoring group was created in 2001 after Michele Jamiolkowski, a Polish-born engineer, coordinated an international committee to save the monument.
The bell tower, symbol of the power of the maritime republic of Pisa in the Middle Ages, was defective from the beginning because of the clay and porous soil that was under its foundations. Once the three floors were completed, the construction work was halted and resumed only 90 years later, when workers began to build additional floors diagonally to make up for the lean. But the works are interrupted again before being completed in 1372.
The tower, located behind the cathedral of Pisa, attracts more than 5 million visitors a year. Reaching the summit requires 269 steps.
The work of the monitoring group, funded by the non-profit Opera della Primaziale Pisana, includes improving the quality of conservation of the structure and promoting research.
