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Leaving to one side the celebrated inclination - that daring challenge to the laws of statics - the bell tower of the Cathedral is a unique building of its kind, both for its great art historical value and for its peculiar situation, in the context of the vast and similarly unique area known as Piazza dei Miracoli. The Tower occupies a site to one side of the Cathedral, between the apsidal area and the south-eastern portion of the transept of the latter. Though not an isolated case (similar spatial organisations can be found in some Pisan complexes and in other Italian buildings), this is an unusual collocation: normally, bell towers were built near to the façade or along one side of churches.
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Western Europe
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image -- 1600 x 1200)