World’s most leaning towers
Tuesday, 24th July 2007 by James Turnbull
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
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There's ground level pictures of the German towers on German Wikipedia: Oberkirche and Schiefer Turm von Suurhusen. ↩︎
Here you have two twin towers with a 15º leaning.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=40.46676,-3.689126&z=17
And this is not an artifact! They were built like that.
They are located in Madrid, Spain. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puerta_de_Europa
@Fito: those are the Kio Towers, which I linked to at the end of the post!
My favorite leaning tower stitch is View Placemark
It just looks so weird.
There are pictures in the German Wikipedia:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oberkirche_%28Bad_Frankenhausen%29 http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schiefer_Turm_von_Suurhusen
Thanks Ben!
We’ve also seen the Olympic Stadium in Montreal. At a 30° incline, it holds the record for the world’s tallest inclined structure at 175 metres
LOL I love those two from germany … they are so sweety 🙂
Here’s another
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=42.012168,-87.783701&z=19
more info here
Sorry just read the post properly, don’t I look the dope
Well, the KIO towers are not leaning but they were built that way; so floors are horizontal to the ground, although the tower seems to be leaning. I think this disqualifies KIO tower in this competition.
Does Chesterfield Cathedral count? Picture at ground level. Maybe not the most leaning, but most twisted?
Yeah, see, I dunno about those towers in Espana. Can an edifice truly be said to be leaning if it was designed that way in the first place? The Pisa tower was designed to be straight but over time IS leaning, if I’m not mistaken.
I mean, from an engineering standpoint it’s not like it’s a huge feat to design something to be not completely perpendicular to the ground..
@Redder & Dan: Good points!
The idea of having a world record for “world’s most unintentional leaning building” does seem a little daft, especially as all three towers have at some point been reinforced to prevent against leaning.
I was just looking for a hotel on the map today, and found this group of buildings just south of it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/angela_clover/Funny%20Pictures/fallingfallingdown.jpg
The location for the hotel is 1250 Eglinton Avenue East, North York, Ontario M3C 1J3, Canada. Too bad those look more like condos than towers.
…HOWEVER, here is Toronto’s CN Tower, practically flat on the ground. Can you seriously beat that?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v151/angela_clover/Funny%20Pictures/cntowerontheground.jpg
The tower and its shadow together look like clock hands.
Some 400 kilometers distance isn’t exactly what I’d call “nearby”.