World’s most leaning towers

Tuesday, 24th July 2007 by

A small German church has laid a bold claim to the title of "World's most squinty building".

Located in the town of Bad Frankenhausen, the bell tower of a 14th century church has been measured at an angle of 4.5 degrees to the vertical. With the backing of the Guinness Book of World Records, the town hopes to steal the limelight from the well know Leaning tower of Pisa and its puny 3.97 degree angle.

The folks in Italy responded to the announcement with barely more than a "meh".

However, the nearby German town of Suurhusen kicked up fuss with their leaning church tower of 5.07 degrees, claiming this to be the true title holder1.

Google Earth users might ask what all the fuss is about as, from appearances, the cities of New York and Dallas must hold the title with their precarious leaning skyscrapers.

These towers are, of course, not leaning at all. They are at the points where two differently angled aerial photographs have been stitched together.

Previously on Google Sightseeing we've seen The Leaning Tower of Pisa, Leaning Tower of Niles and the intentionally leaning Kio Towers which, at 15 degrees to the vertical, must surely be a world record contender?

Thanks: Sunday Telegraph, Craig Simpson, Simone, Jeff Cutter & Catdoor


  1. There's ground level pictures of the German towers on German Wikipedia: Oberkirche and Schiefer Turm von Suurhusen↩︎