Nevyansk Leaning Tower
The Nevyansk Leaning Tower is a sloping bell tower and the symbol of the Russian city of Nevyansk in the Urals . The building, completed around 1732, is a particularly early building with a continuous iron and steel structure, which was atypical for its time.
architecture
The axis of the tower, which is about 57.5 meters high and 9 meters wide, deviates from the vertical by 1.85 meters and thus 1.84 ° (according to other information, 2.20 meters corresponding to 2.19 °). The slope is at the base, while the upper floors correct the slope. A porch in the northeast of the tower was supplemented by a particularly steep roof in the 1740s - with a base side length of 8.6 meters, the roof rises 7.15 meters.
The defining building materials were iron products mined and processed in Nevyansk , which formed the framework for the entire building. Struts, compound anchors and tension straps are made of wrought iron and cast iron , sometimes also from a combination of both materials, so that the main tower is particularly stable. The cast iron has a carbon content of 3.75%, while the wrought iron with less than 0.1% carbon probably comes from a racing furnace . The decorative elements (door frames, railings and floors are made of wrought iron) show that the building was intended to be a prime example of iron architecture.
The wrought iron canopy in the northeast of the tower weighs only 6.3 tons with an apparently fragile construction and rises 60 ° to 77 °. The supporting structure here was specifically made from melted crude steel with around 0.5 to 0.6% carbon content. The support structure required for this shows a precise understanding of the properties of the material used, the quality of which remained unmatched until the 19th century. The architectural foundations of such metal structures were also not considered to exist at this time; therefore it is assumed that the knowledge of comparable wooden structures from traditional Russian architecture was used.
Floors
The first floor originally provided space for chained animals or possibly prisoners. The first floor is said to have been Akinfi Nikititsch Demidov 's study. The second floor contains the premises for a laboratory and an oven. The third, fourth and fifth floors are mainly occupied by the staircase; the function of a 20 square meter room with sound-reinforcing properties between the third and fourth floors has not yet been clarified. On the sixth and seventh floors there is a carillon which was cast by the English master bell caster Richard Phelps and which was allegedly more expensive than the construction of the tower itself. Finally, the eighth floor consists of a viewing platform.
history
The Russian blacksmith and industrialist Nikita Demidow , who became rich at the beginning of the 18th century through his founding and exemplary management of the Newjansk iron foundry on behalf of Peter the Great , began construction around 1722, possibly planned as a bell tower for a much later built one old orthodox church just west of the tower. It quickly emerged that the building ground was unsuitable for the tower's weight when the subsoil under the tower gave way. Despite extensive corrective measures, the construction work was suspended for several years, probably also because Demidow died in 1725. Seven years after the construction freeze, however, his son and heir Akinfi continued the construction work with new plans. Akinfi Demidow had already completed the Leaning Tower in 1735 according to a travel report by Georg Wilhelm Henning , and due to a corresponding year in the bells, this completion is dated to around 1732. Other parties involved in the construction apart from the Demidows are unknown, including the architect. Such documents could have been destroyed in a fire in 1890.
Akinfi Demidow, a favorite of the Russian regent Biron , a very successful businessman and finally ennobled, died in 1745.
Purpose of the tower
There are numerous hypotheses regarding the planned use and purpose of the tower. Despite its later use, the tower was not planned as a church tower. It is widely regarded as a show of power by the Demidov family , but Akinfi probably used the tower privately in his function as local ruler. The observation platform on the top floor indicates its function as a watchtower . There is speculation about its use as an office and even as a bank building for its wealth. Legends about the use of the chemical laboratory to counterfeit coins, which should explain Akinfi's wealth, are not completely excluded.
There are several legends about Akinfi Demidow and his tower, for example that he intended the building to be inclined for certain reasons or that the incline was the punishment for the alleged murder of his now unknown architect. In fact, both the building freeze and the efforts of the bricklayers and metal workers to counteract the damage caused by changed building materials can actually be seen on the building; this makes a planned tilt unlikely.
Whether in the construction of the tower, which has a continuous metal structure from the gold-plated and pointed hollow sphere on the tower roof down to the ground, the functional principle of a lightning rod was deliberately considered (for example because the Menshikov tower in Moscow burned out in 1723) controversial. The functional principle of the lightning rod was not recognized and published by Benjamin Franklin until 1752.
Appreciations and illustrations
- The image of the leaning tower can also be seen today on the Nevyansk city arms.
- A Russian 3- ruble special coinage in silver from 2007 shows the tower.
Coat of arms of the city of Nevyansk
Reverse of the commemorative coin on the theme of Russia's Architectural Monuments
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Individual evidence
- ^ A b Werner Lorenz, Bernhard Heres: The Demidov ironworks in Nevyansk (Ural mountains) - Iron structures in building from the first half of the 18th century .
- ↑ Los Angeles Herald, June 12, 1890: Russian Conflagrations : Large fires in Ufaleisk and Nevyansk killed 40 people, four schools, three churches, iron works, hospitals, warehouses and a thousand residential buildings. 18,000 people were left homeless. Digitized
Web links
Coordinates: 57 ° 29 ′ 22 ″ N , 60 ° 13 ′ 15 ″ E